Itachi's Ghost
by Darth-Taisha
Summary: After Ch 437, Hinata's confession to Naruto. She begins seeing a ghost and he needs her to do something for him...help save his brother from darkness. Itahina/Sasuhina. Off hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 1**

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. I am just borrowing some of his awesome characters for a while.

**Short Summary:** Hinata finds herself able to see a ghost after she is knocked out by Pein's attack. This very attractive ghost wants her to do something for him…find Sasuke and help bring him out of darkness.

**Timeline:** After Chapter 437 Hinata's confession to Naruto.

* * *

Hinata was standing between Naruto and Pein. She looked back at Naruto as she continued to explain why she was helping him.

"I'm not afraid to die protecting you..." she admitted bravely. It took even more bravery for her to say the next few words. "Because-I Love You!" She told him just before she blindly rushed forward to attack Pein.

"Juho Soshiken!" She yelled as she formed two large lion-like shrouds of chakra around her hands, spun in circles and thrust them with deadly accuracy at the Akatsuki leader.

Pein only moved slightly back from the attack as he slowly lifted his hand toward the foolish girl.

"Shinra Tensei," he said without emotion as his jutsu blew Hinata back and knocked her out. Soon a darker chakra picked her up high in the air and slammed her hard into the ground, turning it to rubble underneath her.

Dazed with pain and feeling blood seep out of her wounds, Hinata felt herself floating consciously above her body. She watched in horror as the Akatsuki member began to walk slowly towards her inert body as it lay there helpless and broken in the rubble, and stabbed it with a chakra spear while Naruto shouted desperately in the background.

Hinata was still floating far above the ground, when she saw Naruto's chakra explode and six tails appeared on his orange colored Kyuubi-fied body.

Hinata felt herself halfway between life and death as she felt the explosion of sinister orange chakra through her natural body.

"N-Naruto…k-kun," she stuttered out just before everything went black.

* * *

Cracking open her eyes, Hinata closed them just as quickly as the room was way to bright for her.

_Where am I?_ She wondered feeling very strange. Her body felt light and airy as a feather, and oddly enough she felt no pain at all. _That's strange, I was just in a fight; shouldn't I at least feel like it? _ She thought to herself beginning to feel a little nervous at not knowing where she was.

Fear began to race through her body as she slowly opened her eyes again. She was beginning to remember what had taken place before she was knocked out.

Her eyes closed in pure misery when she remembered her confession to Naruto. _Oh no, what was I thinking to tell him I loved him,_ she thought to herself feeling horrified at by her actions. Blushing in shame her cheeks begin to turn bright red.

"I'm a fool," she said out loud to herself.

Then she remembered her inept attack against Pein. _My attack was worthless, I didn't even slow Naruto's attacker down,_ she thought miserably. Hinata then remembered Naruto's emotional explosion and began to feel even worse than she did before. _I probably made things worse by getting involved,_ she thought in anguish as she remembered the look on Naruto face and his scream as he watched Pein stab her nearly lifeless body.

Hinata sat up and decided she needed to stop being scared and face her fears bravely. She opened her eyes and saw she was in a large white room. The room was so bright she had to squint for a moment until her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the environment. It was strange to her, but as far as she could tell, there were no lamps illuminating the room or even windows. It appeared to be bright, all on its own.

Hinata was shocked when she looked at her clothing and was surprised to see she was no longer wearing her usual ninja clothes. Instead she was dressed in a long white robe that was perfectly white and clean and it was so soft it was like wearing a whisper.

She sucked in her breath as she realized where she probably was.

"Am I dead?" She asked herself out loud in a panicky voice.

She was further shocked when a monotone voice answered her.

"No, you are just foolish. Or brave, I haven't decided which one you are yet."

Hinata looked around the room and didn't see anyone with her in the room. She quickly activated her Byakugan and saw a raven-haired man dressed in ninja clothing standing behind her. He appeared to be without definition almost like a projection.

Hinata deactivated her eyes and couldn't see him at all. She began to feel very frightened. _Who is this man and why can't I see him without my Byakugan activated. _

Suddenly the man appeared in front of her. She could see him clearly now without her Byakugan and she began to examine him more closely. He had dark hair and dark eyes. Hinata frowned as she realized who the person in front of her reminded her of...Sasuke Uchiha? She looked at him in more detail and realized he was older than Sasuke and had ridges along the side of his nose. She sucked in her breath in panic as she looked into his stoic, onyx-colored eyes and recognized him. The last she had heard about him was that he was dead.

"Uchiha?" She said with her eyes wide open in shock.

"Itachi," he finished for her in a calm voice.

Hinata felt the room begin to grow dark as she felt her body slide back down to the floor.

**Author's Note:** I just updated today and I am in the process of cleaning up errors on most of the older chapters. This story is a few years old so a few things have probably occurred in the manga storyline since then, so please bear with any inconsistencies you might see. Thanks for reading. Edited 4/5/12


	2. Chapter 2

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Itachi peered down at the sleeping girl in his arms with a look of amused disgust at how she had fainted at the sight of him and wondered how she could call herself a ninja. He continued to look down at her soft and sweet face and could tell the girl had about as much of a killer instinct as a butterfly did. Then he remembered her attack against Pein and his respect for her increased a notch. He was forced to admit she could be as brave and fierce as a lioness protecting her cubs when it came to defending the people she loved.

He shook his head incredulously as he remembered how fearlessly she attacked Pein as she tried to defend Naruto from being captured.

"Pein?" He said out loud wondering how she had the nerve and courage to attack someone as ridiculously powerful as him. Her actions had been suicidal—and foolish. Then he thought about her words to Naruto just before she attacked Pein.

She did it because she loved him.

He almost felt a stab of jealousy toward the loud Jinchuuriki as he looked down at the lovely Hyuuga heiress as she slept in his arms. He smiled grimly to himself as he breathed in the soft scent of lavender from her hair. She was not for him and never could be. He was dead now and thoughts of being with anyone were useless, as he had no future. Besides he was beginning to sense it was almost time for her go back to the land of the living.

Looking down at her one more time he determined to put it all out of his mind, because he was never one to dwell on things he couldn't have, it was not productive to his way of thinking. His mind began to dwell on his brother, and his fist clenched up in frustration.

Because of Madara, all of his sacrifices and everything he has done to protect his brother and Konoha has become unraveled. Sasuke, now knew the truth about him and why he destroyed the clan and had become consumed with grief and pain. The intense hatred that Sasuke used to have for him was now directed fully at Konoha.

Itachi put his head in his hands and felt a powerful sense of desolation sweep over him as he thought of how his brother didn't just want to kill the village elders. He was planning to kill the entire village in order exact revenge!

_What had gone wrong_? Itachi thought to himself for the hundredth time. Before he had allowed his brother to kill him, he had planned endlessly for every possible situation, scenario and outcome. He realized in the end he had underestimated Tobi/Madara badly. He also never thought his brother would be so far gone into the darkness that he would want to kill innocent people.

Itachi stared out with grim determination and tried to think of another way to help his brother. Since he had died, he had tried on a few occasions to contact his brother, but Sasuke was so consumed by hatred he couldn't see or hear him. Itachi had also tried to contact his brother's old team-mates, but they were also not able to see him. They were too dense and being around the pink-haired ninja gave him a headache.

Then today, he was about to give up on Konoha and try to contact his brother again when he saw Pein attack the village. He tried to help protect Konoha, but without a physical body he wasn't able to do anything. He pulled out a kunai and flung it across the white room.

When he was here in this place, it was the only time he was able to appear in a solid form. It was the only time, he was able to feel or be touched.

A tired sigh escaped his mouth as he looked down at the heiress in his arms once more. He had come across her just as she had jumped over the wall and pushed Pein away from Naruto. He had heard everything she had said to Naruto and had watched her foolish attack against his fellow Akatsuki member.

Her willingness to sacrifice herself for Naruto and the village had touched something in him. He didn't think as he went to help her; he just acted. Just before Naruto erupted into the Nine-Tails form, he intervened and pulled her soul out of her body and brought her here.

Hinata shifted her head as she felt something move under her. She frowned as it felt like she was lying with her head in someone's lap. Her body tensed in fear and her heart began to race in alarm.

Opening her eyes quickly, she again was blinded by the brightness of the room. _Am I still here?_ She thought to herself as her eyes slowly became adjusted to the brightness of the room. Her eyes opened wide when she saw his stern face looking down at her.

She immediately jumped up off of the floor and away from him and was very confused and frightened as she glanced at him; the room; and her beautiful clothes. Then her wide eyes flew back to him. Hinata knew he was dead; she had seen the black flames at the old Uchiha hideout and knew for sure that he had been killed by his brother.

Itachi watched her as she trembled in fear across the room from him and thought he must have imagined her bravery earlier in the day. He looked at her with hard eyes as his voice sliced through her fear and confusion.

"Are you a ninja?"

Hinata took a deep breath and forced herself to become calm. "Y-yes," she answered him, stuttering only a little.

"Then start acting like one."

Hinata tried desperately to stop being afraid, but she just needed answers. She had never been in a situation like this one in her entire life.

"A-am I dead?" She asked him again.

Onyx eyes stared back at her. "I already told you that you are not."

Hinata closed her eyes in relief. "Then where am I?"

Itachi looked away from her before he answered her. "You are in a place that is between life and death. I will be taking you back to your body in a moment," he explained to her in a detached, emotionless voice.

Hinata looked at him and felt even more puzzled. "So does that mean you are not really dead, Uchiha-san?"

Itachi looked at her and wished he still was alive; it would make solving his problem with his brother so much easier. "No Hyuuga-san, I am dead. Kami determined I have too many unresolved issues to allow me to cross over into the land of the dead," he told her calmly.

Hinata felt chilled to the bone as she heard his words. She was actually talking to a ghost! She also unwillingly felt pity as she looked at his emotionless face. She examined him more closely and saw he was only about five years older than she was. It saddened her that he was so young to be dead.

"I am sorry for you," she told him softly with unshed tears in her eyes.

Itachi stared back at her with blank eyes. "Don't be, it was what I wanted."

At his words an awkward silence hung over them, so Hinata walked over to the wall and touched it and to her amazement a window suddenly appeared. She began to scan below them and could see her village. It was almost completely destroyed, she needed to get back right now.

_Naruto!_ Her mind began to race urgently, _what happened to him? _She thought for a moment and remembered feeling the sinister chakra of the nine tails fox as he exploded.

"Naruto, is he okay?" She asked him nervously.

Itachi walked by her and looked out of the window she had created. "I am not sure, I do not think he is dead though," he told her quietly and his words gave her hope.

Hinata began to cry and pray. _Kami, please let Naruto live. _She gazed out the window again and began to worry about her friends and family.

Itachi looked over at the girl next to him and sighed. He was going to ask her to help him with his brother, but he realized he couldn't do it. She was far too soft and kind. His angry, revengeful brother would destroy her if she went near him, he would have to find some other way to reach him.

He held out his hand toward her. "Come, Hyuuga-san, I will take you back now."

Hinata followed him out the door and was amazed to see she was floating as she held his hand and began to fly down toward her body. She noticed one other thing that the closer they got to Konoha the less solid he became. By the time they reached her body, he had become completely transparent and she was holding nothing but air.

She could still see him though and he spoke to her as she looked down and saw her lifeless body lying in the rubble.

"Apparently only you can see or hear me," he explained to her. His eyes softened slightly as he saw how shaken she was at the sight of her injured body lying there in a pool of blood.

Hinata nodded.

"Thank you Uchiha-san," she told him solemnly, and had a feeling that she was only still alive, because of him.

"You're welcome Hyuuga-san," he replied in an equally somber tone.

"I have to leave now," he told her as he guided her back into her body. After she entered her body she felt a slight breeze pass by her face and everything became dark again.

Hinata woke up a little later, but didn't open her eyes when she heard her cousin and his team talking and running around her.

"Her wounds aren't fatal, but they could be, if we don't hurry!" She heard Tenten's voice yell urgently.

"I will hurry and search for a healer," Neji said quickly just before he took off to find Sakura.

Hinata wanted to speak to him, but she couldn't summon the energy to do so, it just hurt too much. She woke up again after Sakura had healed her and sat up when she heard Lee yelling.

"He did it," he yelled, referring to Naruto.

"How is he? Is he injured?" Sakura asked one of Katsuyu's slugs.

"He is exhausted, but he is fine."

Hinata fell to her knees in gratitude. "Thank God!" Tears of relief and joy began to fall down her cheeks. "Naruto, thank you God."

**Author's Note:** 4/5/12, I edited this chapter and changed some of the dialogue. Also, a lot of the dialogue near the end came from the manga. Remember, this fic is not going to be a Naruhina, so don't get too worked up about her reaction to Naruto being alive. Naruto doesn't deserve Hinata at all IMO. You will see in the next chapter:)


	3. Chapter 3

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Hinata woke up the next morning when she heard medics shuffling through the large hospital tent she was in. She looked over near her and could see the Hokage, a mere shell of her former vibrant and powerful self, was lying in a coma. Seeing Lady Tsunade in such a shocking condition began to bring back the events of yesterday in her mind.

Hinata laid herself back on her sleeping mat and realized she was very fortunate that she was still alive. Not only that, she still couldn't believe she confessed her deepest and darkest secret to Naruto. Her face began to blush hotly at the thought of her incredibly rash and reckless behavior yesterday. At the time, when she had jumped over the wall to help Naruto, she never thought in a million years she would survive it. The opponent she had faced had been just too strong.

Something in her had snapped when that monster kept taunting and had tried to capture Naruto, she just couldn't just sit back and do nothing. She knew she had to try to save her friend, no matter what the consequences.

Smiling to herself in a small self-congratulatory way, she thought happily. _At least I got Naruto to notice me, t_here was no way she could still be invisible to him after her extravagantly brave gesture. He just had to notice her now.

Hinata snuggled down more under the covers when she felt the air suddenly become frigidly cold around her. She began to feel strange, like someone was watching her. A nervous smile touched her lips at how paranoid she was acting when she looked around and saw that she was alone except for the nearly lifeless Hokage on the other side of the tent.

She frowned as she tried to remember something else from yesterday. In the deepest recesses of her mind was a niggling memory of something else that had happened to her yesterday, she just couldn't seem to remember what it was.

She shrugged her shoulders painfully, forgetting about her injuries, and figured it would probably come to her later. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a large group of people gathering nearby her tent. Hinata, curious to see what had caused the crowd to gather, carefully got up out of bed in wearing only a hospital gown and began to change into some clean clothes.

* * *

Itachi flew around Konoha and was devastated at the change in his beloved village. It was almost completely destroyed...to the point it was one big smoking pile of rubble. At least the loss of life from the attack was minimal. _The people of Konoha would be able to rebuild,_ he thought gratefully as he looked at the partially intact Hokage Mountain.

A short while ago he had seen many lifeless bodies miraculously begin to rise up and live again. He realized it was Pein's doing. With his Rinnegan, he alone, had the power to bring back to life with his Outer Path jutsu, the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. Itachi had known Pein for many years and was amazed that Naruto had been able to get through to someone as ruthless and driven by revenge as Pein was.

He smiled wryly to himself when he thought of Naruto's naivety and simplistic world view. Maybe there was some hope for this world after all. He thought about Naruto and began to think maybe he should try again to use him to reach his brother. _If only I can get him to see and hear me, _he thought in frustration. So far, only one person has been able to see him and she wasn't at all suitable for dealing with his brother.

As his mind began to think about her, he felt himself automatically going toward the direction of her tent. One thing he liked about being a ghost was it only took a short while to travel long distances. He had only to think about a place or a person and he could almost instantly be standing next to them.

He had been in there once already to see her but she was sleeping. He thought he should go one more time, just to make sure she was recovering sufficiently. After all, he did save her life so he justified that it was his duty to watch over her. At least, that was the excuse he kept making to himself.

Itachi went through the side of the tent in his invisible form. He saw she was lying down on her mat awake and appeared to be deep in thought. He watched slightly amused as a variety of emotions passed over her face. He almost rolled his eyes at her total inability to keep her emotions hidden.

Still, he felt himself reluctantly drawn to her presence. Something about her soul and chakra soothed him and called out to him. He could tell that she was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. Unable to stop himself, he began to move closer to her and his hand slowly reached out to touch her face.

Itachi almost flinched when he saw his hand go right through her cheek as he remembered he couldn't feel anything in this form as he had no longer had a body. He pulled his hand back when he saw her eyes begin to warily look around the room.

He closed his eyes in frustration as he stepped away from her, she was making him forget he was dead. Worse than that, she was making him feel regret that he wasn't alive. The scent of lavender was still in his mind as he looked at her long, silky hair. It made him want to bury his face in her neck and hold her close to him and breathe in her scent.

Until he had met her, he was content with being dead. He felt that it was what he deserved after destroying his clan. His death had accomplished his long-term goal of restoring honor to both his brother and clan.

Now he wanted to be alive to knock some sense in his hard-headed brother for his stubborn refusal to come back to Konoha and begin rebuilding his clan. Itachi looked at her lovely face and decided it was best he didn't even think about what he wanted to do with her. Some thoughts were best to just leave alone unexplored.

He heard noise outside the tent and soon watched as she began to get up and change her clothes. Turning his back on her, he flew out of the room and gave her some privacy.

* * *

Hinata joined the crowd of people who had gathered to meet their hero. Naruto had defeated Pein and miraculously several people including Kakashi and Shizune were brought back to life. She was overwhelmed with joy when she saw his spiky blonde hair and that he was still alive.

"Naruto-kun," she said out loud as she thanked Kami again for returning him back home safely.

Hinata allowed herself a small self-satisfied smile because she knew that she was one of few people who had believed in him. She had always believed in him, even when no one else did. Looking around at the large crowd her heart was overflowing with happiness at how they acknowledged him. Naruto was on his way to accomplishing his dream of becoming Hokage one day.

She smiled a little to herself feeling like almost like a proud parent watching their child take their first steps toward a goal or milestone. Oh,_ Naruto-kun—I am so proud of you,_ she thought to herself as she watched him continue to walk with a dazed expression on his face as he looked at the crowd.

Hinata's heart began to race when she saw he was walking straight towards her. _Oh no, what do I say to him? Should I pretend that I never told him I loved him?_ Hinata thought beginning to panic. Placing her hand over her chest she took several deep breaths as she prepared herself to see him again. He began to come closer, Hinata felt the crowd around her begin to stir and rush forward a little to meet their hero.

_Here, he comes. I must not faint!_ Hinata reminded herself as she prepared to see him again.

Hinata saw that Naruto had stopped a few feet in front of her and looked at her for just a second before he turned his head at the sound of Sakura's loud voice and then her fist as she punched him across the face.

"You are always so rash, dummy," Sakura yelled at him before she enfolded him a big hug. Naruto had a look of stunned disbelief as his pink haired team-mate thanked him and continued to hold him tightly in front of everyone in the crowd.

Hinata watched the scene in front of her with a brave little smile on her face. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, as she realized painfully that she was still invisible to him. He only had eyes for Sakura, and there wasn't any room in his heart for anyone else. Hinata's heart began to shatter when she realized that even after all she had done for him, risking her life to protect him, she would never be anything more to him than just a friend.

Suddenly, the crowd felt like it was caving in on her and she just had to get away from everyone as tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. Outwardly, she remained calm, but inside she was rapidly falling apart. She had to go find somewhere to be alone.

Hinata ran away from the crowd as fast as her still injured and stiff body would allow her and found a secluded area in the woods. She sat down under a tree and put her face in her hands as the tears began to fall.

Itachi had stood next to her as she watched Naruto come towards her in the crowd and then ignored her in favor of his team-mate. His eyebrows raised slightly in surprise at how Naruto could have forgotten to recognize Hinata for her self-sacrificing defense of him. _What an idiot,_ he thought as he watched Naruto continue to hug Sakura with a sappy look of shock on his face. He wondered how anyone in their right mind could choose that pink-haired bitch over the Hyuuga heiress.

He watched Hinata begin to leave and saw her lower lip begin to quiver slightly and decided to follow her to make sure she was okay. He followed her to a patchy undamaged area in the woods and watched as she slid her backside down on the ground next to a tree trunk and began to weep broken-heartedly.

Itachi watched her cry for a long time with a look of discomfort on his face. Scenes of this sort had always made him uncomfortable, consoling people had never been a strong point of his.

After watching her cry for what he considered an unbearably long amount of time he suddenly made himself visible to her.

"He is not worth it," he said flatly in a detached voice.

Hinata jumped up instantly alert as she heard his voice and activated her Byakugan. She jumped back in fear as she noticed he was without a corporeal body. "Y-you're a-a ghost," she stuttered out in fear and shock.

Itachi looked at her and realized she had forgotten about him and what he did for her yesterday. He looked at her patiently as she continued to stare at him without moving. He wondered why she wasn't running from him.

Hinata looked into his dark eyes and face and it jogged something in her memory, somehow she knew he wouldn't harm her.

"Uchiha?" She whispered to him, her eyes questioning him.

Itachi looked back at her and was glad she wasn't running away and appeared to be remembering him.

"Itachi…Sasuke's brother," he supplied for her.

She looked at him for a while before putting it all together. He had saved her yesterday; just before the blast had happened he had pulled her soul out of her body and brought her to a safe place.

"You... saved...me...yesterday," she said slowly to him as she remembered the events of yesterday. Hinata looked up at him and wiped the tears off of her face with the back of her hand.

"Yes."

Hinata looked at him for a moment trying to figure out his motives for helping her. "Why did you help me?" She asked him nervously.

Itachi looked away from her with a slight frown on his brow. "I saw how you were willing to sacrifice yourself to protect Naruto and I just acted," the ghost explained to her calmly.

Hinata blushed as she realized someone else had witnessed her disastrous attempt to help her friend. Feeling helpless to stop them, a few tears slid down her face again as she thought of Naruto's rejection of her.

_Not this again,_ Itachi thought as he watched her start crying again. She looked up at him and was clearly embarrassed by behaving so emotionally in front of him that she stood up to leave.

"Sorry, Itachi-san, I must go now," she told him in a choked up voice before she bowed and turned to go. She began to walk down the path when he blocked her way with a firm look on his face.

"I need your help."

Hinata looked at the ghost in front of her and remembered how he had made Naruto's life a living hell while he was alive. It would be disloyal of her to help a former member of Akatsuki, even if he was dead.

"No, I can't help someone who has made Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun so miserable in the past," she told him firmly as she looked into his eyes.

Itachi looked back at her with a new-found respect as he turned to walk away from her. He was beginning to feel he had misjudged her. She did have more strength of character than he had originally thought. But he was not one to argue with anyone no matter what the circumstances were; he decided he would just have to find some other way to reach his brother.

Hinata watched as he began to walk away from her and his ghostly form began to slowly fade away. Regret began to enter her mind as she thought about the worried look he had in his eyes before he had turned away from her.

_Maybe, I should have asked him why he needed my help before I refused him,_ she thought with a frown as she made her way slowly back towards town. She decided to do something more constructive than crying over Naruto and find Neji and other members of the clan and make sure everyone was okay.

**Author's Note:** (Edited 4/5/12) After I read the scene in the Manga where Naruto came back to the village a triumphant hero, I felt pissed at how Kishimoto had Naruto treat Hinata. In the scene she looked so sweet and supportive of Naruto and he didn't even look at her. She risked her life to save his and he couldn't even give her the time of day! He couldn't even recognize her publicly or privately. I have read all of the manga chapter since 437 and I have not seen one chapter where he even speaks to Hinata. It has been all about Sakura and the promise he made to her about bringing Sasuke home. I used to be a strong Naruhina supporter, now I am really hoping she ends up with Sasuke. Thanks for putting up with my complaining.

Also, I am not going to keep exactly with the timeline in the manga after Chapter 437, because it will not give me enough time to establish a relationship with Hinata and Itachi and Sasuke. I am going to make it at least a week, maybe two from the time of Pain's attack up until the meeting of the Hokage/Kage (recent Manga chapters.) Thanks for reading. I appreciate all of the favs, story alerts and reviews. You guys are great!


	4. Chapter 4

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Itachi sat high above Konoha upon Hokage Mountain. He watched as the reconstruction projects were already beginning to move forward. He looked over in the corner and could see the old Uchiha district was completely obliterated. Considering that his clan was once forced to live there which contributed to them rebelling in the first place, he didn't get too upset at its destruction. That place had too many bad memories for him.

"The Senju clan, Sasuke wants revenge against them and their control over the village," Itachi said outloud as he was trying to work out a solution to his problem with his brother.

He sat back and remembered the conversation he witnessed a few weeks ago between his brother and Madara.

**[Flashback]**

Itachi was invisible as he entered through a wall and into the room. He sat down in the corner and listened to the conversation his brother was having with Madara. Sasuke was seated at a long rectangular table across from their still alive ancestor.

"Sasuke, I have something important to ask you," Madara asked in a firm, but concerned voice.

Sasuke gave him an emo stare back at him which Madara took as a yes.

"Now that you know the whole truth about Itachi and his life…there is the possibility that you will take his position and try to protect Konoha…..so tell me, what are your intentions?"

Itachi felt his invisible gut twist at the anguish he saw in his brother's eyes. He watched as his brother thought for a long moment before he responded. "Itachi's life shows how he sacrificed himself to protect the village," Sasuke spoke sadly as though containing his grief.

A faint hope began to build in Itachi that his brother would choose the right path, but it was soon crushed by what his brother said next.

"But my grief at losing him is deeper than any desire to follow his path….inconsolably so," Sasuke said as his eyes began to darken with emotion and anger.

Anguish began to wash over Itachi as he fully absorbed his brother's words.

"I do not want peace bought with Itachi's life. Now that I know the truth, I will never take his side and protect Konoha," Sasuke continued as his voice and eyes became even more bitter.

Itachi put his face in his hands. "Brother, you fool," he whispered grimly to himself as he listened to Sasuke continue his diatribe.

"Most of all, I will never forgive the three elders. And I believe that everyone in Konoha, enjoying the peace gained in exchange for Itachi's life, are guilty too."

Itachi watched as even Madara appeared to be shocked by the level of pure hatred in his little brother's heart.

"I thought you were only going to kill the elders?" Madara asked him in a slightly concerned voice.

"You fake bastard," Itachi said in a low voice toward Madara. He knew the jerk wasn't concerned; he was just manipulating his brother.

_What do you want with my brother Madara?_

"No, I want to slaughter all of Konoha by myself….I was just pretending in front of Taka," Sasuke admitted.

"Are you sure?" Madara asked him as he leaned forward against the table. "You can ignore Itachi's will, his sacrifice...those he strove to protect?"

Sasuke closed his eyes as if he remembered something infinitely painful to him before he answered. "You told me…the reason Itachi couldn't kill me…was because my life was more precious than the village to him. Then I feel similarly, Itachi's life is more precious than Konoha, that's all." Sasuke slammed his hand on the table before he yelled out. "They discriminated against Uchiha! They ordered my brother to kill our parents, and it was not only the elders who chased Itachi to his death…but all those who in Konoha who abide by Senju."

Madara sat in silence as Sasuke spewed out more words of hatred and revenge.

"THEY ARE ALL OBJECTS OF MY VENGENCE."

Sasuke got up from the table and began to walk away with these words. "Once you have been hurt, you learn what it is to hate."

Itachi watched horrified as his brother, by his words and future actions was planning to destroy everything he sacrificed for. He wanted to follow him and smack him, do anything, to make him see he was throwing everything away for revenge.

"You learned your lesson too well brother. You do have enough hatred in you now," Itachi spoke brokenly, knowing his brother could not hear him. He looked up in shock when he heard Madara address him.

"He learned that lesson from you," Madara said mockingly as he looked directly at him.

"You can see me?" Itachi asked him faintly surprised.

"I can see many things with these eyes of mine," the elder Uchiha said mysteriously as he stood up slowly and began to leave the room.

"He belongs to me and the darkness and even you won't be able to reach him now," Madara told him in a confidently sinister voice.

"We will see about that," Itachi gritted out in a coldly determined voice before he forced himself to fade away.

**[End Flashback]**

Itachi was frustrated. He knew if he could just communicate with his brother he would be able to get through to him. Somehow, he just had to keep trying to find a way to reach him. He decided to fly around Konoha and see what was happening around the town.

He began to think about Danzo and immediately, the elder came into view. He walked over and punched the old man across the face. He sighed as he watched his hand go straight through him. Danzo's eyes narrowed and he looked around warily as he felt the sharp cold slam across his face.

Itachi looked at him coldly. "Suspicious bastard aren't you?"

Danzo looked at the two Root members in the room with eyes full of ambition. "Tomorrow, I will be attending an emergency meeting with the Daimyo where I will appoint myself as acting Hokage, in that _woman's_ place. Everything will soon fall into place and I will be in control of the Nine Tails," Danzo said with a satisfied grin on his face as he leaned back in his chair.

Itachi knew instinctively that having Danzo in charge would jeopardize his brother. Especially since his brother now knew the truth about him. He had to get help, the old man had to be stopped. Unfortunately, there was only one person who could see him. He thought about her with a determined look on his face.

_You are going to help me Hyuuga-san, you do not have a choice now_.

* * *

Hinata tiredly wiped her hand across her brow as she handed some food and clothing supplies to a mother and her child. She had been helping her clan and preparing food since early this morning and she still hadn't recovered yet from all of her injuries. Her body was sore and she was exhausted.

She looked over at the gate that was still standing even though the wall that had once proudly surrounded the compound was obliterated and saw her father and sister enter through it.

Her father's haughty face looked around in disgust as he surveyed what was left of his home. He walked over to Hinata.

"Welcome home father," Hinata said greeting him properly with a bow. She hoped very much that he would be happy to see that she survived the attack. She watched him anxiously as he looked at her.

Hiashi looked down at his eldest daughter and saw nothing but a failure. _She is a disgrace, why do I even bother keeping her around,_ he thought to himself.

"Hinata," he said her name in a cold voice, his tone was questioning her.

"Yes father?" She asked carefully, she knew that tone of voice and could feel a nervous tension begin to build in her.

"I leave you in charge for _one_ day, while I took your sister to meet with the elders and _this_ is what I come back to?" He gestured angrily toward all of the rubble as if it was somehow all her fault.

He stood up tall and straight and looked down his nose at her. "You are a disgrace."

Hanabi sneered at her sister before she complained to her father in a smug voice. "I told you, Father, not to leave her in charge. She always messes everything up, she is so pathetic."

Hinata's lip began to quiver as she maintained her rigid composure under their combined attack.

"Hinata, don't listen to them. Your father and sister are wrong, you are not pathetic," Itachi told her firmly as he came up behind her. At his words and his voice, Hinata's lip began to tremble.

"Don't cry—stand up to him," he told her in a commanding voice. Hinata immediately responded to the authority in his voice and looked at her father.

"What do you have to say for yourself Hinata?" Hiashi asked her with a look of supreme displeasure on his face.

"F-father, i-it wasn't m-my fault," she stuttered out nervously as she felt the urge to poke her index fingers together like she used to do when she was younger.

Hiashi smirked and his lips became tight with anger. "You always say that, and I have been patient with you…" he reminded her for perhaps the thousandth time. "But no longer," he gritted out harshly as he pointed an elegant finger towards the gate. "Get out of my sight and don't come back."

She stood there in shock as her father commanded her sister to take her place handing out supplies.

"Come with me, Hinata," Itachi said to her gently as he tried to take her hand and he held back his anger at what he had just witnessed. She watched feeling numb as his hand passed straight through hers.

"Itachi-san, w-why are you helping me?" She asked him softly. He always seemed to be there when she needed him, it made no sense to her because he was a criminal.

"Look Father, Hinata is talking to herself, she is crazy," Hanabi said mockingly as she began to swirl her finger by her ear.

Hinata almost laughed as she watched Itachi made a stick move across her sister's path and tripped her. It felt good to watch her sister fall flat on her face. With her head held high and her back straight she turned to leave and didn't look back.

"Thank you Itachi-san," she told him with quiet dignity as she followed him out the gate.

She followed him out onto the road and away from Hyuuga eyes and the floodgates on her emotions suddenly broke wide open. Falling forward on her knees, she put her hands over her face as she wept. She no longer had a family and was on her own now. She looked around her and wept even harder as she surveyed all of the damage Pein's attack had caused. It seemed like everything around her was suddenly falling apart and she had nothing and no one to live for. Even Naruto, who had been her inspiration for years, had let her down.

Itachi watched as she continued to fall apart in front of him. He didn't have a clue on how to comfort her, so he remained silent. After what he just witnessed, he began to reconsider putting her in the path of his hate-filled brother, but he had no choice. The situation had changed, so he had to get her involved.

"Hinata, I need your help," he asked her several minutes later.

Hinata sniffled a few times and wiped her nose with her hand before she looked up at him.

"Why me? I-I can't help anyone. I c-can't even help myself," she said as she almost started crying again.

Itachi didn't have time for this, there was too much at stake. "Hyuuga-san stop it. You are the only one who can see me and my brother's life is at stake," he said quietly, his monotone voice was tinged with desperation.

At his words and his tone she stopped crying and slowly stood up off of the ground.

_Sasuke-kun?_

"W-what do you need _me_ to do?" Hinata asked in a weak-sounding voice as she tried to pull herself together.

"We need to stop Danzo from becoming the Sixth Hokage."

Hinata looked at him in shock as he began to tell her what he overheard earlier.

She believed him, as even she had heard rumors about Danzo and Root. Her father didn't even like or trust him, so he must be bad.

She began to think about what Itachi was asking her to do for him. Did he really think she was going to be able to keep Danzo from becoming Hokage by herself? A nervous laugh began to bubble within her. She couldn't even stand up to her father, much less keep a man like that from achieving his ambitions.

Hinata looked over at Itachi who was staring off into the distance and appeared to be deep in thought. She decided he was going to have to come up with a plan, because she was too much of a mess right now.

"Hatake, Kakashi," Itachi said out loud as the name came to him. He thought of all of the people who were potential candidates to become Hokage and with the death of Lord Jiraiya, his name was at the top of the list.

He looked over at Hinata. "We need to find Kakashi and have him stop the Daimyo from appointing Danzo as Hokage."

Hinata looked back at him with a frown, "W-what am I supposed to tell Kakashi-sensei when I see him? He is going to think I am insane," she told him anxiously.

Itachi stared back at her calmly. "I have information about Danzo that would make him unsuitable to become Hokage."

Interested, Hinata looked back at him and waited for him to tell her what he knew. Her jaw opened in shock when he dropped the bombshell on her.

"Danzo and the council, along with the Third Hokage ordered me to eliminate my clan, while I was still a Captain in ANBU Black-Ops."

Hinata looked at him and realized that he died with everyone still believing he was a criminal, she felt profoundly sorry for him.

Itachi saw her becoming emotional and quickly cut it off. "Hinata, we don't have time to discuss this, we need to find Kakashi and persuade him to help us," he told her as he faded away and began to look for Kakashi.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and quickly found Kakashi as he was coming out of a medical tent with a little orange Icha Icha Paradise book in his hand.

She saw Itachi was next to him and was trying to get his attention but with no success. She stared at the ghost for a moment as it dawned on her that she was actually going to help a ghost.

Itachi was beginning to frown at her as Kakashi began to walk away from them.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata yelled out timidly as she began to follow the silver-haired Jonin.

He turned to her patiently with a questioning look on his face. "Yes Hinata?"

Hinata began to blush and stare at the ground. This was going to be very difficult.

"Umm, I need to speak to you in private, please," she said in a furtive voice as she looked around to see if anyone was near them.

Kakashi frowned curiously as he followed her to a secluded area.

When they stopped, he looked at her expectantly. He watched her carefully and wondered if this had something to do with Naruto. He had heard a little bit ago about what she did for him.

She remained silent as she looked over his shoulder nervously like she was looking at someone.

"How may I help you Hinata?" He asked her in a very patient voice as watched her closely. Her behavior was very unusual for her; she also looked like she had just been crying. He was beginning to grow even more interested in what she had to say.

Kakashi watched as she looked again over his shoulder and sighed a little reluctantly as if she was being forced to do something she didn't want to. Finally Hinata leaned toward Kakashi and spoke in a low tone of voice. "Danzo, is planning to meet with the Daimyo tomorrow and is going to try to make himself the Sixth Hokage in Lady Tsunade's place."

Kakashi's muscle in his jaw twitched before he looked at her firmly. "I am not surprised that he would try to maneuver himself into such a position. He has always been an ambitious man." _Not to mention shady and corrupt,_ Kakashi thought cynically, remembering what Sai told him about the curse jutsu on his tongue.

Hinata looked at him as he took the news so calmly. "Um, Kakashi-sensei, don't you think we should try to stop him?" She asked him peeking over his shoulder again.

Kakashi saw the direction of her eyes and looked over his shoulder quickly. When he didn't see anyone standing near him he turned back to her with questioning eyes.

Hinata lowered her head and blushed. "Gomen, Kakashi-sensei."

"Hinata why do you want to stop him so badly?" He asked her quietly. He personally wanted to stop him too, but he wanted to find out why she was doing it.

"Um, I have heard that if he becomes Hokage, he will immediately make Sasuke-kun a rogue ninja and allow him to be hunted down as an international criminal."

Kakashi admitted to himself that she was probably right, but he wanted to know where she learned this information from.

"Where did you hear that?" He asked her softly.

He watched as the Hyuuga looked over his shoulder again and her eyes were asking permission from whatever she was looking at.

"Kakashi-sensei, I got it from Sasuke's older brother Itachi," she told him as she looked at him, her eyes were pleading with him to believe her.

After almost dying and speaking with his father recently, Kakashi wasn't ready to rule out any crazy story, but he had to find a way for her to prove it to him.

"Is he here with us now?" Kakashi asked her calmly.

Hinata nodded and pointed to where Itachi was standing. He was standing next to her and was facing Kakashi.

"Ask him what I asked him, while Naruto and I were fighting his clone as we were trying to rescue Gaara?" The jonin asked her quietly.

She was going to ask for more details when Itachi immediately answered the question.

"He said you asked him about his eyesight," she relayed to Kakashi.

Under his mask, Kakashi looked at her impressed, but he had to ask her at least one more thing, as that could have been a lucky guess. "Okay, have him tell you how long he had me trapped in his Tsukuyomi?"

Hinata looked in front of him now and nodded before she answered.

"He said he had you trapped for three days in his illusion while he…" she flinched slightly as she glanced over at Itachi. "...stabbed you repeatedly. H-he said while using his Mangekyo Sharingan he could control time in that dimension, when in reality the jutsu only took a few seconds," she said before she turned to Itachi and asked, "Did I explain that right?"

Itachi nodded. "Close enough," he answered her flatly as he continued to keep his eyes on Kakashi.

Kakashi lowered his mask and stared at the place next to Hinata with his Sharingan and he could see a slight disturbance in the area and a faint outline of a man. _So, he really is here._

"Uchiha Itachi, do you really think I would help you after what you have done to your clan, your brother and Naruto," he said slowly and distinctly.

Hinata looked at Kakashi nervously, he just had to help them. "Um, Kakashi-sensei, there is something I need to tell you. Itachi-san told me he was ordered as an ANBU Captain by the Third Hokage, Danzo and the other advisors to eliminate his clan," she said as she looked at Kakashi, her eyes were pleading with him to help them.

"We cannot allow such a man to become Hokage, Itachi told me the Hokage was reluctant to give the order and the driving force behind it was Danzo. Him and the Elders also ordered that everyone be killed…even the women and children," she said as her eyes began to grow moist with unshed tears.

Kakashi looked over in both of their directions. "I believe you; I always had unanswered questions in my mind regarding that event, now it all makes sense."

"Do you have any proof?" He asked suddenly as he looked over at the female ninja.

Hinata looked over at Itachi who shook his head no.

Kakashi looked at both of them as he appeared to be thinking. "I think I know someone that does," he said slowly.

Hinata looked at him with a glimpse of hope in her eyes.

"Let's go find Shizune."

* * *

Shizune was near the hospital and was trying to see if there was anything salvageable in the rubble when Kakashi showed up behind her.

"I need your help?" He said lazily in her ear.

Shizune began to blush. She has had a secret crush on Kakashi almost from the day her and Lady Tsunade returned to the village.

"How may I help you," she asked in a breathless sort of voice. He was standing very close to her and it was making her feel off balanced, so she took a step backward.

Kakashi took a step closer to her, he knew she liked him and was using that to his advantage to insure that she will help them.

"I have information that Danzo is planning to go tomorrow and meet with the Daimyo and make himself Hokage in Lady Tsunade's place. We have to find a way to stop him."

Outraged, Shizune exploded, "That bastard. How dare he?"

Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "I have information about him that will make it much more difficult for him to be accepted as Hokage. However, I don't have any proof."

Shizune looked at him and realized he had been flirting with her to get information. She sighed in disappointment as a part of her had been hoping he was starting to like her a little.

"Kakashi, what kind of proof do you need?" She asked firmly with her arms folded upon her chest.

"Secret missions documents and records from when the Third had been Hokage."

She looked at the silver-haired jonin with frustration and grim mirth, "Good luck, I used to know where those records were, but now everything is buried under the rubble under the Hokage's main building."

Kakashi looked over and saw Hinata was heading in their direction. He had a feeling that this is what they were going to end up doing to find them.

He looked at Hinata and wasn't sure if Itachi was around either. "We will need you to use your Byakugan and search around the Hokage's building underground for the secret missions log book. We have to find them by morning."

Shizune looked at him. "What secret mission records are you looking for specifically?"

"All the records pertaining to the destruction of the Uchiha clan," Kakashi said. He looked around with his Sharingan and he could see a slight outline of Itachi, next to Hinata.

"Itachi I need you to search through the rubble and look for those documents. If you find them alert Hinata and we will find a way to retrieve them," Kakashi told him.

He wasn't able to hear him, but he felt a slight chilly breeze pass by him in Hinata's direction so he assumed the Uchiha had heard him.

Shizune stood there with a look of confusion on her face. "Were you just talking to Uchiha Itachi? I thought he was dead?"

Kakashi put his arm around her shoulder and began to lead her toward the rubble of the Hokage's building.

"I'll explain everything on the way," he told her patiently.

Shizune looked at his hand sitting on her shoulder and felt warmth course through her body. _Take your time Kakashi, s_he thought with a smile.

**Author's Note:** (Editing completed: 4/17/13) Most of the dialogue between Sasuke and Madara came straight out the manga book 45, I think it was chapter 450. Thanks so much for all of the reviews and alerts. I really appreciated all of the feedback. Sasuhina coming up soon, probably within two chapters. Thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 5**

* * *

It was near midnight and Hinata's eyes were burning with the strain of using her Byakugan for several hours straight. She continued to look deep into the rubble trying to find the secret documents that would prove that Danzo ordered the Uchiha clan to be massacred.

"Here, Hinata," Shizune said gently as she handed her a steaming cup filled with green tea.

"Thank you," Hinata answered in a weary voice as she took the cup from her gratefully.

"Any luck?"

Hinata sadly shook her head no, before taking a sip of the hot tea. She was so tired she was beginning to feel like she was going to collapse.

Shizune looked at her with worried eyes. She knew Hinata had just been healed of some pretty vicious wounds and was not giving herself a chance to recover. "Hinata, take a break, you look like you are ready to collapse," Shizune told her in a concerned voice.

Hinata looked at the rubble from the Hokage building and knew Itachi was still searching underneath it. _I can't quit now,_ she thought urgently as she realized that he needed her help and it was not only him, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and Konoha, needed her too.

She had to keep searching, for all of their sakes. A look of determination filled her eyes as she looked back at the medical nin. "After the documents are found—then I can sleep," she said quietly before turned around and reactivated her Byakugan.

Shizune sighed. "Alright Hinata, let me know if you find anything," she said before heading off to look for Kakashi.

* * *

In the distance Root members patroled Konoha. Some of them thought it was not needed as Konoha was nothing but rubble anyway. However, no one dared to voice that opinion to Danzo, as that would have been very foolish.

"Man, this sucks," Kei complained to his partner.

"Shhh," his partner told him as he looked around nervously and began to whisper in an urgent voice. "Are you insane, do you want Danzo coming down on our asses again? He is already paranoid enough without you complaining."

Kei shrugged his shoulders at his partner's fear of their complete asshole of a leader. "Whatever. You have to admit this walking around and guarding rubble is beyond stupid," he said rolling his eyes.

"I'm not going to listen anymore; you are just going to get us into trouble—like usual," Kido said huffily as he turned to look toward the center of town.

Putting his hands on his hips Kei looked offended. "Me, how can you blame me, when it is you who is always getting us in trouble?"

He looked at his partner huffily in irritation when he saw he was standing there staring at the center of town and was completely ignoring him.

Feeling completely irritated, Kei stomped over to his partner. "Hey, what are you staring at?"

Kido kept watching the center of town and pointed toward a person standing in the center of some rubble.

"I am pretty sure I saw the Hyuuga girl standing in the same place over an hour ago when we came by this area earlier," he said as he pointed toward her direction. "Yet, look at her. I don't think she has moved from that spot."

Kido looked over in her direction and frowned. "Ya know, I think you're right. I wonder what she is looking at."

"I don't know, but if you notice she is standing almost directly on top of the old Hokage building," Kei said as he watched her intently.

At the mention of the Hokage building Kido's eyes opened wide in alarm. "We need to get to Danzo-sama immediately. You know how suspicious he is," he said as he leaned toward his partner and whispered conspiratorially, "Especially considering what he is planning to do tomorrow."

Kei's eyes began to look in the distance at the Hyuga girl slyly. "Yeah, you are right. If someone wanted dirt on Danzo that would be the perfect place to look."

Kiddo nodded. "Come on; let's go report in to him. I think he will be interested in what we have to tell him. Especially since I have spotted Shizune in the area recently, as well."

"Okay, let's go tell the old buzzard before he dies on us. Maybe we will get a promotion out of this," Kei said under his breath as he hurried behind his partner.

* * *

Kakashi was leaving the hospital tent with Shizune, when his sharp eye noticed two men entering Danzo's tent very quickly. There was an urgency in their movements that was beginning to make him uneasy. He hoped they weren't on to what they were doing.

He whispered to Shizune, "I think Danzo is becoming suspicious. I am going to go check on Hinata."

Shizune looked over her shoulder and saw two more root members quickly enter the tent. She looked at Kakashi worriedly, "What do you need me to do?"

Kakashi leaned closer to her and spoke softly. "I need you to keep watch over Lady Tsunade. I wouldn't put it past Danzo to try to eliminate her before she wakes up from her coma."

Shizune's eyes opened wide in fear. _He wouldn't dare harm her, s_he thought angrily. But looking at Kakashi, and knowing he was not one to be suspicious without a good reason, she knew she had to trust his judgment. Plus, she was beginning to realize that Danzo was even more devious and evil than even she had previously thought.

She nodded. "Hai, I will protect her with my life," she told him fiercely before she turned away.

"I know you will," he told her softly before he dissipated and left to go find Hinata.

Shizune smiled slightly to herself as his confidence in her made her feel very, very good.

* * *

Itachi looked around him and was becoming more frustrated by the minute. He looked at the massive amount of papers and scrolls buried behind the rubble. It was almost impossible for two people to do this on their own in the small amount of time they had.

At least he never had to worry about getting tired or hungry. He began to wonder about Hinata, she had been searching almost as long as he had and had barely taken any breaks.

_I should go check on her_, he thought becoming a little worried about her.

After concentrating on her for a moment, he was immediately standing next to her. She felt him approach and tiredly turned to him with her Byakugan still activated.

"Did you find something Itachi?" She asked him beginning to perk up at the thought that he might have discovered something important.

"No, I haven't," he replied tightly.

Hinata frowned and looked at him with questioning eyes before she tiredly turned back and looked at a spot in the rubble where she had left off.

"Hinata, you need to take a break."

Turning around, she was going to respond to him when she noticed he was staring intently off in the distance.

"Kakashi is coming, something is wrong; I think Danzo is on to us," Itachi warned her. He could sense others were also coming this way.

Hinata looked at him with big eyes.

"Hinata, I will go look in on Danzo, you head toward the front gate. Somehow, I will get Kakashi to follow me and we will meet you there," he told her before disappearing from her sight.

Hinata hurried and began running as fast as she could until she made it past the front gate. She found a large pile of rubble and hid behind it. As she sat there and caught her breath, she began to get nervous she would be spotted so she kept her Byakugan activated.

After about five minutes of waiting anxiously, she spotted Kakashi's chakra.

"Hinata, we need to leave the area, Danzo is after you," Itachi told her as he came straight through the pile of rubble she was hiding behind.

At the sound of his voice Hinata jumped nervously. Hinata watched as he tried to take hold of her hand and his went straight through hers.

Her eyes followed him as he shook his head slightly at his mistake. It almost seemed to her as if sometimes he forgot he was a ghost.

"Follow me; Kakashi is going to take you somewhere safe where you can hide out. Root is after you and they want to take you in for questioning."

Hinata swallowed nervously at the way he said questioning, to her it almost sounded like he meant torturing.

Without speaking, Hinata immediately obeyed him and began to follow him. She trailed closely behind him for about five minutes when he stopped on a tree branch and Hinata saw Kakashi's chakra up ahead.

After checking the area to make sure it was safe she went over to him and asked, "Kakashi-sensei. What happened?"

The silver-haired jonin looked over at her with relief in his eyes and was glad she was safe.

"Hinata, after you left the area, Danzo had his Root members secure the perimeter around the Hokage's office and now no one is allowed to enter the area. Apparently some root members saw you in the area ealier and became suspicious. Danzo has men out around town searching for you even now as we speak," Kakashi warned her.

He looked over at her and thought she would be afraid, but he saw she was looking over in the area where Itachi was with a look of disappointment on her face.

"I'm sorry Itachi," she said to him, beginning to blame herself for what happened.

"Don't worry about it, we will find another way to help Sasuke," Itachi told her calmly in a reassuring voice.

Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder.

"Hinata, you are not to blame for this. Danzo is a very suspicious man and I am beginning to think that there is a lot of dirt on him buried under that building because of the way he is acting," he told her with a wry smile.

Hinata still felt badly but it made her feel better that they were both trying to make her feel better.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do now?" She asked him wondering what they were going to do now about Danzo.

"Well, I am going to try to go to that meeting tomorrow and see if I can try to keep Danzo from becoming Hokage."

Hinata looked at him worriedly. "But, you don't have any proof. How are you going to make them believe you?"

Itachi looked over at Kakashi shrewdly knowing that sometimes an accusation alone without proof could be enough to cause doubt in the minds of people. Proof is not always needed, especially when you have as secretive of a past as Danzo has. Just the allegation of wrong doing by itself might be enough to cause the Daimyo to think twice about making Danzo Hokage.

"Hinata, I know other things about Danzo. I will do what I can to keep that man out of power," Kakashi explained calmly to her.

"Please be careful sensei," she told him softly.

He put his hand under her chin so she had to look at him. "Hinata, I am going to place you in a hideout where you will be safe. I will send Pakkun to you when it is okay for you to return to Konoha."

Hinata nodded tiredly. She was becoming so exhausted she wasn't even sure if she could stand any more.

Kakashi saw how tired she was, turned around and gestured for her to climb on his back.

"Get on." He told her firmly.

"I can walk," She told him stubbornly, trying not to be a burden to him.

"Hinata, don't argue with him," Itachi told her firmly as he walked past them. He was sensing danger was getting close and they needed to get her to the hideout as soon as possible.

She sighed softly feeling even more like burden to them and obeyed him. Within a few minutes she gave into exhaustion and fell asleep.

A few hours later Hinata felt someone shaking her arm. "We're here," Kakashi told her before she slid off of his back.

She looked around and saw she was in a small cabin buried deep in the woods.

"This place is well hidden, you should be safe here," Kakashi said as he pointed toward a large wooden box. "There should be some clean clothes and food rations in there. If you get thirsty, there is a small stream close by for water," he told her quickly.

Hinata nodded numbly, completely worn out after the last few days she has had.

"Keep your Byakugan activated as much as possible, there still is the small possibility that we were followed tonight," he warned her.

Hinata watched as he performed a hand sign before disappearing completely.

Hinata looked around in the dark and found a small lamp. She walked over to the wooden box and took out some clothes. She found a large shirt and some pants. They were much larger than her so she would have to roll them up, but at least they were cleaner than what she was wearing.

She looked around for Itachi before she began to get undressed. She couldn't see him anywhere so she began to change clothes.

Itachi had gone outside and was looking around the area. He could see that the cabin was well hidden and very far off the main path. _She should be safe here,_ he thought before entering through the wall of the cabin.

When he got in there he saw that she was sleeping. He walked over and placed his hand on her forehead and watched as it went right through her head.

He jerked his hand away and closed his eyes in irritation. _How many times do I have to do that before I realize that I cannot touch her?_ He thought to himself and reminded himself for the third or fourth time today that he was dead.

After looking around and seeing she was safe, he decided to go back to Konoha and see if he could find out anything else.

Hinata woke up to someone's hand covering her mouth. She went to lift her arms and found she couldn't move them.

She activated her Byakugan and saw three Root members were surrounding her.

"Hyuuga Hinata, you are wanted back in Konoha for questioning," he told her in a menacing voice.

Hinata strugged against them desperately and tried to kick at them with her legs.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, or we will paralyze your legs as well," Kido warned her in a voice that said he was enjoying himself.

"Get up; Danzo-sama doesn't like to be kept waiting," Kei told her as he roughly dragged her up on her feet. She felt rough hands put her shoes on her feet before they shoved her out the door and into the cold.

Itachi came back to the cabin and saw the Root members had Hinata.

He assessed the situation rationally and wished once again that he was still alive. He would have been able to kill all three of them without even breaking a sweat.

Itachi thought for a moment and realized his brother was only a few miles away.

His jaw tightened as he realized the risk he was taking. Going to Sasuke was by no means a sure way to help her. _He might even kill her himself,_ Itachi thought as he debated all of this in his mind.

He watched as one of the Root members roughly kicked Hinata in the back.

_I have to risk it, if she ends up back in Konoha she is dead anyway,_ he thought to himself knowing that Danzo will torture her and have her eliminated secretly if she goes back.

Itachi concentrated his thoughts on Sasuke and immediately was next to him as he slept. He knew if he was going to be able to communicate with him, this was the best time to try it because when a person is sleeping their mind is quiet. He had heard from other ghosts that they had been able to contact family members this way, by speaking directly to their subconscious minds.

"Sasuke, wake up," Itachi watched and waited for his brother to respond. He tried again in a louder voice, "Sasuke, wake up."

He waited.

Sasuke rolled his face toward the wall and said in a sleepy voice. "Go away Itachi, I am sleeping," he mumbled.

Itachi smiled slightly as he remembered long ago his brother used to do that whenever he had to wake him up in the mornings.

"Sasuke, I need you to follow me," Itachi tried again.

Sasuke felt strange and cold and for some reason he could hear his brother's voice. Since his brother had died he had been so wrapped up in pain, anguish and thoughts of revenge he could scarcely think of anything else.

Now he could sense Itachi was near and it was like they were on a dark winding path and he was supposed to follow it. _This is a strange dream,_ he thought puzzled, but he wanted to keep the connection he felt with his brother so he began to follow it.

"Itachi, where are we going?" Sasuke asked his brother in a dreamlike voice as he left his bed and began to leave the cabin him and his team were staying in.

"You'll see when you get there. I need to you do something for me," Itachi said in a firm, but mesmerizing voice.

"Okay brother, just don't leave me. I want to talk to you," Sasuke mumbled in his sub-conscious voice.

"I won't Sasuke."

Itachi watched as his brother, dressed in only sleeping pants with his chest bare, continued to follow him in almost a trancelike state. _I hope he doesn't wake up soon, or he won't be able to hear me anymore,_" he thought with concern. He could tell they were getting closer to Hinata.

"Sasuke, I need you to help me. There is someone I need you to protect for me."

Sasuke continued to follow the sound of his brother's voice down the path. He began to run faster as he felt his brother becoming distant from him. "I will Itachi, just don't go, brother," Sasuke mumbled sleepily, beginning to grow anxious.

Itachi looked straight ahead and saw Hinata was walking with her arms limp at her sides with a Root member on either side of her and one was behind her.

"Sasuke you need to wake up and protect Hinata for me, I will talk to you again soon," he said soothingly.

"No brother, don't leave….I need to ask you some things," Sasuke mumbled anxiously, becoming upset at the thought of his brother leaving him.

"SASUKE WAKE UP NOW!" Itachi said in a loud voice.

Startled, Sasuke's eyes opened wide. He looked around feeling disoriented by the early morning light and the briskly cold air. He looked down at his bare feet and saw he was naked except for his sleeping pants.

"Itachi?" He said, remembering the vivid dream he had. He looked around him and saw he was on the same path as his dream. He decided to follow it some more and see where it led him and search for his brother.

Looking ahead he heard voices. He began to stealthily move closer toward the sound of them. His eyes became hard when he recognized the uniforms as the Root division of ANBU, they were from Konoha. Sasuke's Sharingan flashed red as he moved silenty behind them.

Within a manner of moments the Root members were eliminated, Sasuke showed them no mercy. He began to walk toward the female they had been guarding. She looked familiar to him and he saw her white eyes. _Hyuuga Hinata_. He continued to walk towards her as she backed away from him with fear in her eyes.

Itachi watched as his brother continued to walk towards her with a hard look in his eyes. He knew what that look was, his brother was going to kill her. As was normal with anything dealing with her, he acted on impulse. He didn't think as he entered her body and lifted up her hand and poked Sasuke in the forehead.

Sasuke looked at her fingers on his forehead with wide eyes, and immediately stopped in his tracks. He was in shock as he watched her begin to collapse to the ground.

"Itachi?" He whispered in a confused voice as he caught her and pulled her towards him before she fell.

**Author's Note:** (Editing completed: 4/5/12) Please leave me feedback, I had an awful time finishing this chapter. Anyway, I am really looking forward to some Sasuhina time. It will be my first time with this couple and I am looking forward to the challenge. Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

"Well done Sasuke," Itachi said out loud to his brother knowing that Sasuke wouldn't be able to hear him right now. He watched as his brother picked up Hinata and began to carry her down the path. He was a little surprised when Sasuke began to take her towards Kakashi's hideout. He realized Sasuke probably had been there before when he still part of Team Seven.

Itachi followed them and began to relax when he saw that Hinata was no longer in danger of Sasuke killing her. He saw his brother was still glaring at her with a look of confusion on his face, but at least there was no longer any murderous intent behind it. He smirked silently to himself seeing his brother was still trying to figure out the connection between Hinata and himself.

Sasuke carried her inside the small cabin and looked around in the dim early morning light and remembered back years ago when Kakashi-sensei took them here on the way back from a mission. He looked down at her to see if she was awake and saw she was still out cold. Seeing the small bed in the corner of the room, he walked over and laid her down on it and covered her up.

After looking around and seeing no other furniture, Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and pragmatically climbed underneath the covers next to her. He was freezing without a shirt on or even any shoes on his feet there was no way he was going to worry if she was going to be offended if he slept next to her. Pulling the covers up to his chin he turned away from her and quickly fell asleep.

Shivering under the covers Hinata felt a source of heat next to her and automatically snuggled closer to it. Sighing softly to herself, she wrapped her arms around the comfy warmth before falling back to sleep.

Itachi came into the room and watched as Hinata snuggled next to his brother and felt jealousy unexpected tear through him.

She's mine, he thought irrationally and began to get angry at himself for letting her get to him.

He floated next to her and tried to touch her silky hair and watched as his hand predictably went through her head.

Itachi sighed as he realized he had to let her go, she had never belonged to him in the first place. He watched as she shivered from the frigid air that always surrounded him and snuggled her face into his brothers back.

_She doesn't need me; she needs someone who is alive,_ he reasoned to himself becoming his rational self again. He looked down at his brother and sneered slightly.

"She's too good for you too, neither one of us deserves to have her," Itachi admonished his younger brother as he lay sleeping.

"I know." Sasuke murmured sleepily.

Itachi looked at him closely and was surprised his brother had heard him. Looking down, it looked like Sasuke was fast asleep. He wasn't sure if he really heard him or not.

He leaned over his brother and gave him a resigned look.

"I am trusting you to watch over her brother."

Itachi watched his brother's face as he slept for a long while before he left to go check on Kakashi and see what was happening with Danzo.

* * *

Kakashi watched in frustration as Danzo, the advisors and Nara Shikaku went to go meet with the Daimyo. Before he had left Danzo had made eye contact with him and Kakashi saw a small look of triumph in his unbandaged eye before the old man looked away.

_You may have won this round old man, but you better watch your back,_ Kakashi thought grimly to himself as he watched him and his entourage walk away. Danzo was a dead man walking as far as he was concerned. He was playing a dangerous game and it was only a matter of time before Sasuke found him.

Kakashi also knew Danzo's appointment would not be permanent because the Jonins still needed to vote before he could be confirmed officially as Hokage. He promised himself and Konoha that he was never going to let that happen. He would find all the proof he needed to expose him before the vote took place.

* * *

Sasuke rubbed his eyes tiredly as a streak of sunlight went across the room and landed on his face. A slow smirk came over his face as he felt Hinata's warm body cuddled against him. For just a moment he enjoyed the feeling of having her close to him. He thought she felt nice up against back_. Hmm_, v_ery nice,_ she was warm too and soft in all the right places.

Reluctantly Sasuke moved away from her. He had too many questions and he didn't want to wait anymore. Besides she was distracting him from his mission.

He turned toward her and looked at her while she was sleeping. He remembered her from long ago as the weird, shy girl who liked that knucklehead, Naruto. At least she wasn't as annoying as the rest of the girls from the academy. She was one of the few girls that didn't stalk him and make his life miserable.

Sasuke frowned as he thought about last night, w_hat the hell happened? _ His lips tightened as he glared around the small cabin. He remembered going to bed last night after preparing all day for his upcoming attack on Konoha and somehow he had ended up here with her. He stared at her with unfocused eyes as he thought about the strange dream he had last night.

He remembered hearing his brother's voice waking him up and telling him to follow him. Then he followed him on a long dark path for a while before Itachi had asked him to take care of something for him.

Sasuke looked at Hinata and remembered his brother had called her by name in the dream. Itachi had asked him to wake up and protect Hinata for him. He remembered his brother's voice had almost sounded urgent to him. It was almost as if his brother cared for her.

Sasuke frowned and shook his head in disbelief. _No….I must have imagined that part_. _It just isn't possible—He doesn't even know her,_ he argued in his mind as he stared at her.

Hinata felt the sunlight on her face and realized she should probably wake up. She moved her hand a little and came in contact with someone.

Her eyes flew open in alarm and looked straight into hard onyx eyes.

"Sasuke-kun?" She gasped and nervously pushed herself away from him towards the wall.

"Hinata?" Sasuke replied in a questioning tone of voice. His hard eyes pinned down on her like a hawk. Now that she was awake, she was going to supply some answers to him.

Hinata's mind raced as she saw he was half naked in bed with her at the cabin. She stared at him for a moment and then she remembered root and how they were taking her back to Konoha for questioning—and back to Danzo. She shivered slightly just thinking about his name.

_Itachi. He must have found a way to get through to Sasuke,_ Hinata realized gratefully and began looking around the room for him.

"How do you know my brother?" Sasuke's hard voice broke through her thoughts.

Hinata looked back at him more closely and realized Sasuke had changed and not for the better. The way he was looking at her was frightening beyond belief. His eyes were so dangerous it looked like he could snap her neck without a second thought.

She swallowed nervously as he began to move closer to her.

"Well?" He asked her again as his black eyes bore down on her menacingly.

"I-I…." Hinata began to stutter before the door to the cabin was ruthlessly kicked in.

Sasuke looked irritated as he watched Karin and his team-mates barge noisily through the door.

"Sasuke!" Karin shrieked worriedly as she stepped on the door she just kicked down and came in the cabin. She stopped when she saw he was not alone.

Her jaw dropped open in shock and outrage. Karin immediately began to see red and was bristling with hatred. Sasuke belonged to her!

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" She screamed at Hinata and mentally kicked herself for being so worried about Sasuke she didn't even sense her chakra along with his.

"I told you he didn't like you that way, Karin." Suigetsu mocked spitefully. He was enjoying this little scene immensely. It was nice to see that bossy bitch put in her place for once. He glanced over at the girl next to Sasuke and approved of his choice.

"Mmm, very nice Sasuke, she is delightful." He smirked appreciatively toward Hinata.

Hinata blushed in embarrassment and Sasuke glared at him to mind his own business and leave her alone.

"Shut up Suigetsu!" Karin screamed as she rounded on him with fists blazing.

He quickly ducked and turned to water as Karin began to pummel him viciously.

Itachi came back just in time to watch them kick through the door.

He rolled his eyes at his brother's team-mates and wondered how his brother put up with all of them. They were all so pathetically irritating the way they practically worshipped his brother. To him, it seemed as if they all had some sort of sick fascination with Sasuke.

Itachi looked over near the door and saw Juego was standing there and staring at Sasuke and Hinata with a slight look of betrayal on his face. His face was sad as if he had lost his best friend and Itachi shuddered as he thought the guy looked like he was going to start crying any minute.

This was all more drama than he could tolerate.

He looked over at Hinata and realized she had better watch herself around these guys. Except for Suigetsu, who looked to be a massive perve, the other two might consider her to be a threat to their relationship with sasuke and try to eliminate her.

Itachi was beginning to regret his decision last night to have Sasuke rescue her. "You better watch over her brother, or else," he threatened him as he looked down on him.

Sasuke looked at his team-mates with undisguised annoyance on his face. He was never at his best in the morning and today he was even more pissed off than usual at them for interrupting them.

"Go away—All of you," he growled menacingly, his voice was laced with an obvious threat.

At the sound of her beloved Sasuke-kun's voice Karin stopped beating the crap out of Suigetsu and looked up at him with soft eyes.

"But Sasuke, come with us. You don't need her," she said in a sweet voice, but the look she shot at Hinata was full of raw venom and hatred.

"I don't need you either," Sasuke reminded her callously. He looked up at all of them with hard eyes dismissing them.

"She is my prisoner, we will return when I am done interrogating her."

Suigetsu snorted behind his hand. "Interrogating her? Ya right," he said sarcastically amused. He looked over at Hinata on the bed with Sasuke and winked suggestively at her before leaving the cabin.

Feeling absolutely mortified, Hinata put her head down and hid her face in her hands as she realized what he was implying about them.

_I am not that kind of girl,_ Hinata thought innocently outraged. She looked up and watched as the fuchsia haired girl gave her another dirty look before she left with the large, but silent team mate who was standing near the door.

"Tch, Idiots," Sasuke complained impatiently as he looked toward the door they just exited before his gaze returned to Hinata who was still flushed with embarrassment.

Hinata thought for a moment when it dawned on her what he told his team-mates. H_e is going to keep me as his prisoner, s_he thought worriedly as she looked around for Itachi and saw he must have left.

"I-I'm your prisoner?" She asked him nervously as she began to scoot further away from him.

"Yes."

Hinata decided it would be best if she just kept her mouth shut. Even though Danzo was trying to have her killed, in her mind he didn't represent Konoha to her. Konoha was all of her friends, fellow ninja's and family. She would never betray her village.

Hinata stared out straight ahead with her mouth tightly shut.

Sasuke looked at her with irritation flashing in his eyes. He didn't want to torture her (for one thing it would be ridiculously easy to do so) he just wanted her to explain her connection to his brother to him.

"Relax," he ordered her.

Not trusting him, Hinata continued to stare straight out in front of her. She turned her head to the side when she saw Itachi enter the room. She almost spoke to him, but the ghost silenced her with a look.

"Hinata, you may tell him about what happened with Danzo and you may tell him about me. However, tell him I will continue to hide myself from him unless he promises to back off on destroying the innocent people of Konoha. I do not care if he kills Danzo and the elders, but I will not sit back and watch him get manipulated and used by that bastard Madara to destroy what is left of Konoha," he told her with hard eyes as he stared at his brother.

Hinata stopped herself from nodding back at him at the last minute. She didn't want Sasuke to know Itachi was in the room with them. She felt relieved that he gave her some instructions on how to handle Sasuke. Until he talked to her she didn't know how much she could tell him or what she should keep to herself. She did have a question however, that had been bothering her ever since she woke up next to him this morning.

She looked over at him hesitantly and touched his arm. He appeared to be thinking with a solemn look on his face.

"Um, Sasuke?"

Hard intense black eyes glared at her, Hinata visibly shrank back.

"Do not be afraid of him Hinata, that look he is giving you is just Sasuke's way of letting you know he is listening to you," Itachi encouraged her as he whispered in her ear.

"What do you want Hinata?" Sasuke asked her with diminishing patience.

Hinata swallowed nervously because she was beginning to think she already knew the answer to the question.

"Um, last night when you rescued me from the root members, were you…(looks away nervously)….going to kill me too?"

"Yes," Sasuke answered her truthfully without any hesitation.

Hinata's jaw dropped and her eyes anxiously looked toward Itachi. She realized he must have helped her because the last thing she had remembered was the murderous look in Sasuke's eyes as he advanced on her.

"Why didn't you?"

Sasuke looked at her in surprise and could tell she didn't remember what happened.

He stared out moodily and even more confused as to how she knew his brother.

"Last night you did something that only my brother has ever done to me."

Sasuke had a painful look on his face as he thought about his brother's last words to him and how he poked him on the forehead and transferred his powers to him just before he died.

Hinata saw the pain on Sasuke's face and felt pity for him. She leaned closer to him and gently laid her hand on his arm and tried to comfort him.

Sasuke flinched his arm away from her and glared angrily at her. _I don't need your pity, h_is eyes clearly told her to stay away from him.

She moved away from him feeling rejected. I _was just trying to help? Why wouldn't he let me?_

Itachi moved next to her. "Try again Hinata," he told her solemnly as he gestured towards his brother.

Hinata sighed and decided to trust him. If anyone understood Sasuke it would be him.

She shuffled herself closer to him and prayed silently that he didn't try to kill her again for daring to touch him. Bravely reaching over she put her hands on his shoulders and began to gently pull him towards her chest.

Sasuke resisted and began to glare at her, but the look in her eyes stopped him. He saw in them a stubborn kindness so pure and gentle he was unable to stop himself from being drawn towards her. He moved closer to her and nuzzled his face in the crook of her neck and felt the comforting presence of not only her, but strangely his brother also.

_I miss him so much,_ Sasuke thought painfully as he held onto her.

Hinata cried silently for him as she held onto him tightly. She had never in her whole life seen eyes as haunted as his. No one should ever have to carry so much despair and pain inside of him like he did.

She gazed at his spiky dark hair and felt herself being drawn in by the powerful magnetism that he had. _Oh Kami help me, I am just as pathetic as all the other girls,_ she thought to herself as she felt some sort of undefined feeling begin to form for him within her heart. He still scared her silly, but a small part of her just wanted to be near him.

Itachi had left as soon as Hinata reached out to his brother. He knew instinctively his brother would not be able to resist her. After all, he hadn't been able to and he and his brother were a lot alike.

Sasuke opened his eyes suddenly and pulled himself out of her arms. He stood up and began to look around for a shirt or something to put on. He opened the wooden box and found a tan colored shirt that looked like the one Hinata was wearing and put it on.

He was done feeling sorry for himself. It wasn't like it was going to bring back his brother or his family. He was an avenger; he could not afford to be weak like other men.

Hinata silently got off the bed and began to put her shoes on. She was beginning to realize that both Uchiha brothers were complicated and hard to understand. If Itachi hadn't pushed her to try again she would have missed out on an opportunity to help Sasuke and would still be afraid of him.

She picked up her clothes from yesterday and found a sack to put them in. She looked over and saw Sasuke had found some old shoes to wear and was putting them on.

Hinata looked at his face and saw the usual mask of indifference was put firmly back into place. Still, something within her told her that something small had changed between them. It wasn't like they were friends or anything more than that, but she knew they weren't just former classmates anymore.

"Come on Hinata, we need to go," Sasuke told her without an ounce of warmth in his voice or in his eyes as his hand reached out to grab hers.

Hinata's eyes darkened slightly as she saw his didn't go straight through hers, his hand was real and solid as it clasped around hers.

Up above, Itachi watched as his brother reached out to pull Hinata along with him down the path. It was a bittersweet moment for him as he watched them walk hand in hand together. _I am trusting you to watch over her brother,_ he thought as he looked at Sasuke. After focusing his mind on Konoha and Kakashi he soon felt himself floating back towards them.

_**Author's Note:**_ Thanks so much to everyone who left me a review. Wow! You guys are awesome. This quick update is for all of you. I have to go a little AU with this one because after reading the Manga it gets pretty complicated and I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about Naruto. I will do my best to keep it as close to the manga as I can.

Edit: 4/4/12


	7. Chapter 7

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 7**

AN: Sorry it took me so long to update.

Rage, pain, anger…hatred—especially hatred, they were emotions he had learned to live with. They were all emotions that defined the way he lived his life, they were his philosophy. He was an avenger.

_They will pay for what they have done. I am not so forgiving as my brother was,_ Sasuke's mind spewed out hatefully.

Sasuke laid on his sleeping mat and felt the comforting and restoring feelings of rage and malice flow over him. All the anger he had once focused on his brother was now fixed on Konoha and the three elders, especially Danzo.

Yet, he kept hearing his brother's voice from the other night. It made him feel conflicted, because he knew his brother wouldn't want him to attack konoha.

"Itachi," Sasuke gritted his name out with anguish; he covered his face with his hands.

_Brother—damn you, help me,_ his mind called to his distant brother. Now that he was dead, he seemed farther away than ever from him.

Feelings of regret, pain and vengeance flooded his mind again. He had to make them pay, no matter what his brother wanted, it was what they deserved. Yet a small voice remained in his mind telling him that vengeance was wrong. It was his mother's soft, sweet voice. Everything she had taught him went against his current philosophy. She had taught him to be kind and to merciful to others who were weaker than he was.

Unbidden, he saw her face and his brothers' in his mind. He could see they were imploring him to do the right thing. Stubbornly, Sasuke forced the picture to go away in his mind.

"It's too late for that, Konoha must pay," Sasuke ground out-loud, effectively shutting out the voices of conscience in his head. He closed his eyes and fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

Tied up with Jugo watching over her, Hinata was sitting up against a tree in the shade outside of the cabin they were staying in. After Sasuke brought her back here he promptly had Jugo tie her up and watch over her as he went inside to sleep some more. She learned that he had recently sustained injuries and was still recovering from them.

Hinata looked around and saw her huge captor was surrounded by a large number of song birds and appeared to be talking to them. After activating her Byakugan, she noticed he had a massive amount of sinister chakra and there was a seal of some sort on his shoulder at the base of his neck. She looked at it more closely and it appeared the seal was weak and the chakra behind it was pulsing and continually pushing against it. Repressing a shiver, she noted the guy was clearly a ticking time bomb, she was determined to not set him off or upset him in any way.

Hinata's back was cold and she felt gritty and dirty as she stretched as much as she could considering she was tied up. Feeling tired and miserable, she put her head against the trunk of the tree, closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.

Some time later she was woken up when Karin and Suigetsu came back from doing the tasks Sasuke had assigned to them. Karin had a kunai knife and was beginning to saw away on Hinata's ponytail. Hinata tried to pull her head away but Karin viciously kept a hold of it.

"Such pretty hair," the fuchsia-haired girl said insincerely as she looked at it in her hand. "It's a pity I am going to cut it all off," she said with a snide smile as she raised the kunai knife and began cutting where the base of the pony tail holder was.

Hinata tried to struggle but her hands and feet were tied too tightly. She watched helplessly as a small chunk of her hair was sawn off.

"Karin, I would leave her alone if I were you, Sasuke seems to be very _protective_ of her," Suigetsu said goading his team-mate.

"You…you—shut up," she spluttered becoming enraged and extremely jealous.

"She is his prisoner!" Karin yelled as she gestured to Hinata's tied up hands and feet.

Suigetsu smirked. "Ya right, they seemed pretty cozy together when we came across them earlier today."

She stopped sawing at Hinata's hair and yanked it hard. She looked into Hinata's white eyes and became nervous when she saw she had activated her Byakugan.

"L-leave me alone." Hinata said bravely as she struggled to get away from Karin.

Karin looked around to make sure Jugo and Sasuke weren't around before she kneeled angrily next to Hinata.

"Sasuke-is-mine," she said possessively with hard, almost insane eyes.

Hinata pulled away from her knowing at this range she could kill her if she wanted to with her gentle fist. She wanted to try to avoid hurting her too much so reaching out both her hands tied at the wrist she touched Karin on the arm and blocked one of her chakra points.

"Ouch," Karin screeched as she flinched her arm away from her.

Karin raised her fist and was going to pummel the dark haired girl in front of her when Sasuke's voice stopped her.

"Karin, stand down," he commanded her in a hard voice. His face was almost amused as he looked at Karin.

"You are lucky Hinata is kind, she could have killed you with her gentle fist a moment ago. In her place, I would not have been so merciful," he told her in a quietly menacing voice as a way of warning her.

Karin's face turned pale as she nervously began to back away from Hinata.

"Sasuke," she implored him weakly to forgive her as she looked at him with soft eyes.

Unforgiving dark eyes stared back at her and forced her to hang her head as despair began to wash over her. Sasuke was angry at her.

"She belongs to me, you are not to touch her," he warned his team, his eyes slid over Karin and Suigetsu especially.

Sasuke formed a lightning blade in his hand and with quiet efficiency cut the ropes around her hands and feet.

Hinata pulled her arms and feet apart and was impressed when she saw that the lightning didn't burn her at all.

"Thank you Sasuke," she told him quietly.

Sasuke nodded impatiently and was beginning to look bored.

"You need a bath, come with me," he told her as he picked up the towels he had with him along with a bar of soap and began walking towards the woods.

Suigetsu smirked and winked at her. Hinata tried to ignore him, but still ended up blushing as she tried to stand up.

Her legs felt numb from being tied up for so long and she had trouble standing. Her legs felt weak and when she tried to take a step she almost fell.

Sasuke noticing she wasn't following him, turned around and saw she was having trouble walking came back for her and grabbed her hand.

"Come on," he told her irritably as he pulled her along keeping her close to him. His gentle hold on her hand belied his words and confused her a little. She continued to follow behind him as the feeling in her legs began to return.

"Um, Sasuke-kun, I can walk okay now," she told him as she tried to pull her hand away.

Sasuke ignored her and kept held of her hand.

"We are almost there," he told her without looking at her and continued to walk forward down the path.

Hinata nodded and continued to follow him. A short distance later they came across a clearing and she saw a lovely natural hot springs pool that was surrounded by bushes and floral plants. She began to get nervous as she watched the steam rise up from the water and saw that there was only one pool and she realized they would be bathing together.

"Um…Sasuke," she said with widenening eyes as she watched him begin to strip off his clothes.

Her face heated up fiery hot as she turned away from him. Her nerves began to spin out of control as she waited for him to get into the pool. A few moments later she heard a splash behind her as he stepped into the water.

"Get undressed," he commanded her in a no nonsense voice.

Hinata wanted to refuse but she realized she would probably look very foolish to him. Besides she didn't think he was interested in her like that. She breathed out nervously.

She turned around and saw he was covered by the water and had his head laying on the edge of the pool with a small towel over his eyes.

Feeling extremely bashful, Hinata began to quickly strip off her clothes and stepped into the water and went into the deep part so she was completely covered up.

After she was in there for a while she had to admit the hot water did feel wonderful to her sore and cold body but it didn't do anything to soothe her nerves. She peaked over at Sasuke and found herself becoming warm all over as stared at his splendidly sculpted chest.

"Okay, start talking."

She jumped slightly when she saw him looking at her and realized he knew all along she was staring at him. She blushed and soon noticed it didn't seem to bother him that she was staring at him. He almost seemed to be bored by it.

_He is probably used to it,_ she thought to herself as she peeked at him again admiring the way his damp hair clung to his face. He was easily one of the most amazing looking guys she had ever seen. She reluctantly felt a little dazzled by him. Shaking her head she realized he had asked her a question.

"Um, what do you want to know?" She asked him as she fidgeted with her hands under the water.

"Tell me what brought you here."

Hinata looked around for Itachi and saw he was nowhere to be found. She remembered he did tell her she could tell Sasuke about him.

She settled herself across from him and began by telling him about everything that had happened in Konoha since he had left years ago. She began to relax a little when she found he was actually a good listener. He listened patiently and asked her many questions. When she got to the part about Konoha being attacked by Pein he became angry.

"What! Pein attacked it."

_Damn it! I was going to destroy it,_ he thought becoming incensed. Sasuke forced himself to calm down and see what other information he could glean from her. He began to realize he was going to have to adjust his plans to destroy Konoha now that it was already ruined.

"What else happened?" He asked her with intense eyes. Hinata instinctively flinched and backed away from him slightly.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he told her as he rolled his eyes impatiently.

Hinata looked at him and wished she could believe him; but the look in his eyes was just so scary. She tried to calm down and remembered how he saved her from his team-mate earlier. He did seem to be protective over her, and he had even said that she…(blush) belonged to him. Hinata took a deep breath and realized that she had nothing to fear from him. This was Sasuke-kun after all, not some stranger.

"Sasuke-kun, um, are you still planning to attack Konoha," she asked him bravely.

Sasuke thought about Pein and how he already destroyed the place he began to get angry again.

"Yes I am," he answered shortly with complete honesty.

"I am going to destroy Danzo and the elders and anyone else who gets in my way for what they did to my brother and my clan," he told her as he looked angrily off in the distance.

Hinata shivered slightly as the killing intent began to radiate off of him. She bravely reached over and touched his arm; he immediately began to calm down. He looked at her with hard eyes that asked her what she wanted from him.

"S-Sasuke-kun, many people will die if you attack Konoha now, " she implored and then explained how Danzo had taken over and was planning to become Hokage in place of Lady Tsunade. Hoping she was doing the right thing, she told him everything, but intentionally left any information about Itachi out.

Sasuke looked at her with questioning eyes.

"Why is Danzo looking for you?"

Hinata looked away from him and realized she couldn't lie to him because he would know it if she did.

"I was trying to find information about him that was buried under the Hokage building that would keep him from becoming Hokage," She admitted to him reluctantly with a sigh.

As Sasuke moved closer to her his hard eyes never left hers.

"What kind of information?"

Feeling breathless and a little scared at his closeness to her Hinata backed away from him slightly and tried to buy herself time. She looked around for Itachi and wondered where he was today. Since she had met him he never left her alone for long and always seemed to be there when she needed him. Glancing nervously at Sasuke she thought she could really use his help right now.

Sasuke seeing her back away from him in fear realized she was shutting down on him and he wasn't going to get anything out of her. And he really didn't want to have to torture her or use his eyes on her. He decided to try another way to get her to talk and forced his body to relax and his eyes became softer as he looked at her.

"Gomen, Hinata," he said softly. To Hinata's ears he sounded almost repentant and a little tired.

Feeling the water move against her skin, Hinata turned toward him suddenly and found he was very close to her now. Her eyes looked straight into his and found herself reluctantly drawn in by the innate magnetism that was such a natural part of Sasuke. Reluctantly, she felt herself melt a little towards him.

Warning bells began to ring in her mind. _He is using me and only wants information from me,_ her mind thought desperately as she watched his eyes travel slowly over her face and focus on her mouth.

"Sasuke," she whispered breathlessly in protest as watched him take his thumb and slide it slowly over her bottom lip as his eyes continued to stare into hers. Then without warning she was suddenly hauled forward as arms like steel bands encircled her and a warm, searching mouth descended on hers. Parted lips, tender and insistent stroked hers, molding and shaping them to fit his, and then the kiss deepened abruptly while hands tightened on her back and shoulders, were caressing and possessive.

Innocently reaching up and clinging to his shoulders, the world suddenly became dark and sensual where nothing mattered except for the body and mouth locked hungrily to hers. Hinata forgot that she was his prisoner and that he was an enemy to Konoha.

Coming to his senses, Sasuke dragged his mouth from hers and released her so suddenly she almost slipped backwards underwater. They looked away from each other uncomfortably and tried to calm their ragged breathing.

_What the hell just happened?_ Sasuke thought becoming angry at his total loss of control. He always kept girls far away from him and didn't have time for anything that distracted him from his goals. He only wanted to get information from her, but when he had her close to him like that it just happened…naturally. The thought made him frown in confusion.

Hinata sat there in shock as her hand lightly touched her mouth. He had given her, her first kiss. She had always wanted Naruto to kiss her first, but it ended up being of all people…Sasuke-kun. She glanced over his way and saw he looked angry and almost as confused about it as she felt. Seeing him like that made her feel better.

Feeling angry at herself, she realized she should have struggled or something, but at the time she couldn't do it. Deep down she began to understand it was because a part of her had wanted him to kiss her.

Hinata quickly brushed that thought aside not ready to wrap her mind around that yet. She decided to tell him about his brother and hoped that maybe it would get him to change his mind about attacking Konoha.

"Ah...um, Sasuke-kun?" She asked him tentatively.

Hard intense onyx eyes stared back at her. Her immediate reaction was to back away from him, but she remembered that Itachi told her that was just the way Sasuke was, she forced herself to remain calm and not flinch away from him.

"I was looking for information on Danzo...about how he ordered your clan to be eliminated. Some of his men spotted me and I had to leave Konoha," she told him as she watched his eyes open wide in surprise that she knew about what happened to his clan.

"Who told you about that Hinata?" He asked her with sharp eyes and Sharingan activated.

Hinata looked down and hoped he believed her. "Your brother…Itachi told me that he was ordered by Danzo and the elders and the Third Hokage while he serving in the ANBU Black-Ops."

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together sharply at her words and under the water his hand clenched into a tight, hard fist.

"Itachi is dead, how do you know him?" He asked her suddenly, his eyes were watching her suspiciously.

Hinata sighed.

"I know it sounds crazy, but your brother is a ghost. He saved me from Pein when I jumped in and tried to defend Naruto. Since then, he has saved me on numerous occasions...he is my friend," she said softly, but her eyes were firm.

Sasuke stared out in the distance, as his mind was absorbing her words. It made sense now why Itachi had come to him in his sleep and asked him to watch over her. His brother did know her and apparently cared for her. His mind was full of questions especially one of them that was at the forefront of all his thoughts.

"If he is a ghost...why hasn't he spoken to me?" He asked her and she saw the hurt in his eyes that he wasn't able to hide from her.

Hinata closed her eyes and knew her words were going to bring him more pain.

"He told me he tried to contact you... but you are so filled with hate and revenge that you are unable to hear or see him. He is...upset that you still want to destroy Konoha. Everything he did and went through was to _protect_ you and the people of Konoha and you are _destroying_ his sacrifice," she finished sadly and looked at him with tear filled eyes.

Sasuke looked away from her and knew what she said was true; his brother would never condone what he was doing. He was not someone who believed in revenge.

"Hinata, I need to see my brother," he told her with quiet desperation in his eyes though his voice was brusque as always.

"I will see what I can do," she promised softly.

Sasuke nodded. "Let's go back," he said and decided he would talk to her later and find out the rest of her story. He needed time right now to absorb what she had just told him...

**AN:** 4/4/12, I edited this page and cleaned up some of my more obvious errors. I am currently working on chapter 16 and should be posting it soon:)


	8. Chapter 8

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Itachi watched as the Cloud ninja entered the Hokage's tent. Curious, he followed her in and stood off to the side while he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"I'm Samui…I have a letter from the Raikage for the Hokage...," she said after she entered the tent and when she saw Lady Tsunade lying in a coma on the sleeping mat, her face fell at the sight. This letter was important and needed to be delivered to the Hokage immediately.

"She's unconscious?" Samui asked Shizune.

Reaching out her hand toward the cloud ninja, Shizune said politely, "I'll take the letter, I'm her aide."

At her answer Samui looked frustrated, and did not hand her the letter. "If you do not know when she'll wake up, let me speak to whoever's in charge in the meantime," she told her forcefully.

Shizune looked at her unsure of what to do, causing the Cloud representative to become even more frustrated and annoyed. "Listen, I need an answer right away."

"But…" Shizune started to answer, before she was interrupted by Danzo coming into the tent.

At seeing the shady politician, Itachi's killer intent began to rise dangerously.

"That woman is no longer Hokage…I'm the new Hokage, give the letter to me," Danzo said authoritatively as he took the letter from the Cloud ninja.

At his words, Shizune's eyes immediately went to Lady Tsunade and knew she had to keep her safe from Danzo. _Kakashi was right_; he is power hungry and would not think twice before having her assassinated.

Her hand clenched nervously at her side as she watched Danzo read the letter.

Danzo smirked internally as he read the letter and was in an excellent mood. It had been very satisfying to take over Tsunade's job and put her bossy assistant in her place. His grim smile became a tad nastier as he read Uchiha Sasuke's name in the letter.

_That brat…I am going to enjoy dealing with him. Tsunade was way too lenient with him,_ Danzo complained to himself arrogantly as he was looking forward to dealing with Sasuke in a better way—his way.

"Sasuke, eh…? I had a feeling it could come to this," he said as he looked at the Cloud ninja with a fake look of gravity on his face.

"Well, what is your answer?" The cloud representative asked much more politely than she did to Shizune.

Itachi's mouth became grim as he watched Danzo smile slightly and knew what was coming next.

Danzo shrugged his shoulders, before looking over at the cloud ninja. "He is a missing nin, dispose of him as you see fit," he said in an uncaring manner as if he were talking about having someone take out the trash.

A pleased grin formed over the Cloud ninja's face as she nodded to the new Hokage and left. She had been hoping he would say that.

Itachi shook his head sadly at his brother's foolishness, his need for vengeance was going to get him killed. He released a pent up sigh before deciding to go check on him and Hinata.

* * *

Spying on Sasuke as he bathed with Hinata, Suigetsu masked his chakra as much as he could. He realized if Sasuke caught him, he would not be too happy with him and probably kill or maim him. A small shudder ran through him at the thought, but he just couldn't resist watching them…

He made himself into a puddle and had his eyes trained on them while they talked. His mouth formed an oh, in surprise, as he watched Sasuke drag Hinata into his arms and kiss her passionately.

_Sasuke, you are such a man-whore,_ he thought smirking to himself as he realized Sasuke was probably using his looks to try to get information from her. Seeing Hinata's soft white skin as she stepped out of the springs Suigetsu began to wish he could interrogate her too.

_Oh shit!_ He said anxiously as he sensed a couple of kunai knives were headed in his direction. Before they could hit him, he slithered off towards the camp in fear. He knew Sasuke was going to have some words with him later on for spying on him and Hinata.

* * *

Hinata peeked around with her Byakugan to see if anyone was watching her while she got dressed, she saw Sasuke was politely looking the other way from her on the other side of the spring. She hurriedly lowered her towel and began putting on her clothes. While she was putting on her pants, Itachi appeared suddenly beside her.

"Oh!" Hinata squeaked slightly in alarm and hastily picked up the towel she had been wearing from the ground and covered up the front of her. A slow blush of embarrassment crept up her pale skin as she looked over at the ghost.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the way he was staring at her.

"Sorry Hinata." Itachi told her politely before he lowered his gaze off of her and turned away from her.

Hinata frowned in confusion and shook her head as if she didn't believe what she saw on Itachi's face. _I must have imagined it,_ she thought as she quickly finished getting dressed and saw that Sasuke was waiting for her impatiently.

She looked over at Itachi and felt an unexpected rush of happiness at seeing him. It had felt lonely to her while he was gone and she was getting used to having him around. She felt safer when he near by.

"Okay, I am dressed now," she told him. At her words, both Itachi and Sasuke turned around towards her.

"Hinata, are you ready to go," Sasuke said offhandedly to her as he started walking back toward the base. He was frowning in the distance thinking of how he was going to deal with that dumbass, Suigetsu, for spying on him.

Hinata hurried and put her shoes on and began to follow him. She looked over at Itachi and saw he was staring at Sasuke with a grave look of concern on his face.

"Itachi?" She whispered to him, her voice was questioning him.

Itachi sighed and glanced at his brother one more time before he turned to her. "Danzo has been made Sixth Hokage and has declared Sasuke to be a rogue shinobi."

Hinata's face drained of color as she looked at Sasuke as he walked ahead of her with alarm. "T-that means ...?" She asked him knowing the answer already.

Itachi's nod and solemn face gave her the answer she didn't want to say out loud.

**[Konoha]**

"Sasuke's a rogue shinobi…and it is standard operating procedure to erase him," Kakashi told Naruto, Sakura and Kiba. At their combined look of shock and anger he told them the reason he had not been declared as such until now.

"It was only because of Lady Tsunade's benevolence that was indulging us to settle things with Sasuke privately."

Sakura's hands balled up into fists as her anger and worry for Sasuke almost caused to her to be overwhelmed with emotion. "I…I'm going to go talk to Danzo!" She told them as she began to stomp off.

Kakashi sighed as he realized, as usual, with his hot-headed team, he needed to be the voice of reason. "Sakura wait."

Sakura stopped and turned around and looked at him impatiently. "What?"

"Your barging over there won't solve anything," Kakashi explained to her patiently as he walked over and gently put his hand on her shoulder.

"But how dare they decide this when Lady Tsunade's not even conscious…and about Sasuke too…I can't stay silent any longer," she told him angrily trying to shake his hand off of her.

Naruto, glared at both them, chomping at the bit to do something…anything to save his friend.

"I'll go too," he told Sakura.

Kakashi raised his hands peacefully, trying to keep them both from doing something rash. "Calm down, both of you. This is one time you need to stay cool and collected," he told them in a firm but soothing voice.

"I don't care! I'm going!" Naruto ranted.

"Me too!" Sakura said forcefully as she went to follow him.

Kakashi sighed and mentally rolled his eyes at their stubbornness. "Naruto, don't forget you host the Nine Tails…Danzo wants to confine you to the village. Besides…I have someone with Sasuke right now. Someone who I think can get through to him and bring him back home," Kakashi told them mysteriously.

"Who is it?" Kiba asked him with a confused look on his face. Akamaru barked the same question to him.

Kakashi had a small knowing grin under his mask before he answered them. "Hinata."

Several stunned faces all looked at him with the same look of disbelief on their faces like he had lost his mind.

"Hinata!"

* * *

Back at Sasuke's camp, Hinata, suddenly sneezed. Feeling kind of cold she shivered slightly.

"Bless you," Suigetsu said with a smirk as his eyes casually glanced at her chest.

Hinata seeing his look, moved away from him and covered her chest with her arms. She looked over and saw her guardian angel—I mean ghost was glaring at Suigetsu and she could feel his killing intent radiate throughout the room.

Feeling a strange, yet familiar chakra in the room, Sasuke looked over at Hinata and saw she was staring at a space in the room with a nervous look on her face. Suspicion turned to action as he activated his Sharingan.

He gasped when he saw very faintly his brother's chakra.

_Itachi is here! _He thought feeling both elated and angry at the same time. His eyes narrowed as he looked over at Hinata and he wondered why she didn't tell him his brother was here.

Getting up slowly out of the chair his dark eyes caught hers, making her gasp in surprise at the hard look in them. Hinata started slowly backing away from him as Sasuke's team-members looked on.

As he walked past Suigetsu, Sasuke sent a warning glare his way, letting him know he saw how he had been staring at Hinata and he didn't like it at all.

Suigetsu put his head down and took a step back away from him. At his submissiveness, Sasuke glanced away from him dismissively and continued onward toward his original prey who he noticed was looking distinctively nervous and guilty.

When he got closer to her he put his arms on her shoulders and leaned his head so it touched hers. With his Sharingan blazing, he stared straight into her wide open eyes.

"Hinata, why don't you and Itachi come outside with me?" He told her softly as his suspicions were immediately confirmed as he watched her glance over anxiously in Itachi's direction.

Releasing her arms, Sasuke turned around and began to walk out the door knowing that Hinata would follow him.

Hinata nervously lifted her head up and saw Sasuke's team-mates staring at her with confusion in their eyes, trying to figure out what was going on between her and Sasuke.

She quickly went to follow him when Itachi blocked her way. "Hinata, I will talk to him."

Hinata looked up at him gratefully and then gulped nervously at the look on his face. She realized, in some ways he was probably the more dangerous of the two brothers. Sasuke's mercurial temper would blow hot for a short while, but with Itachi, she thought if he ever got really angry, it would be scary indeed. As it was, she wouldn't want to be in Sasuke's shoes right now.

Sasuke walked away from the cabin they were staying in and walked a short distance to the edge of the river. He took a deep breath, still wondering how long Itachi had been with them and why he didn't try to contact him. And Hinata…his lips thinned out thinking about how she knew all along he was there and didn't bother to tell him...

Breathing out huffily he turned around and wondered what was taking them so long, when he saw his brother suddenly appear to him.

"You wanted to talk to me brother…well here I am."

All the joy Sasuke felt at being able to see his brother vanished when he saw the look on his face. He knew he was in trouble…

**Author's Note:** (Edited: 4/6/12) I am sorry for the cliffie, but I really want to wait and see what happens with Itachi in the manga before I have them talk. I am sort of mirroring this story with what happens in the manga and I think I need to wait before I go any further with this story. I know I haven't updated for a while, but please let me know if you are still reading this story. Silence from all of you doesn't motivate me at all. Thanks to all of you who left me feedback on the previous chapter, this update is for all of you.

**Some of the dialogue is from manga ch. 452.


	9. Chapter 9

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 9**

* * *

**AN: **I dedicate this to all of the people who were kind enough to leave me feedback on Chapter 8. You guys are beautiful...Arigato.

* * *

Seeing the glowing energy that spiked menacingly around his brother, Sasuke swallowed and resisted the urge to lower his glance. Steeling himself mentally, he forced himself to continue to stare into his brother's stern eyes.

A surge of pained remembrance went through him as he saw the look in Itachi's eyes reminded him of his father's so long ago. His father used to look at him the same way when he had done something that disappointed him.

Growing up, he had seen that disapproving look directed at him in his father's eyes many, many times, but rarely did Itachi ever look at him that way. Itachi used to often be irritated or annoyed with him, but never disappointed.

As a child, the light of his brother's approval was an anchor that had kept him sane, it kept him motivated in the face of his father's neglect. Over the past several years without his brother's steady, calm and sometimes impatient guidance he had felt adrift, living only for revenge.

"Sasuke."

At hearing Itachi's inhumanly frigid tone of voice, Sasuke raised his chin higher and looked rebelliously back into his brother's gaze.

A flash of irritation passed over Itachi's eyes and in some small way it caused Sasuke to relax. Having his brother only irritated with him was far better and more tolerable than dealing with his anger and disappointment.

"What?" Sasuke returned warily.

"Listen up, I don't have much time." Itachi told him sharply. "Because of the darkness that surrounds you, I am having to expend an enormous amount of spiritual energy… just so you can see and hear me."

Itachi's eyes were full of reproach as he glared at his brother.

Sasuke flinched under that look and knew what his brother said was true, he could feel the darkness around him, smothering him and drawing him in. Lately, the only times he has been able to see beyond it, was when Hinata had been with him.

"By now, Hinata has probably told you that Danzo has become Hokage and has proclaimed you to be a rogue shinobi and can be eliminated on site," Itachi told him remotely with a hint of pain in his eyes.

Having his little brother strung up and killed as an outlaw was not the future Itachi had so carefully planned out for him…_If only I still had a physical body, _Itachi thought as his hand began to clench in a fist. _So help me little brother, I would beat some sense into you_.

His eyes grew hard as he pinned Sasuke down with them. "Tell me Sasuke, when will your thirst for revenge stop…after the elders are killed… or after you plunge the whole world into the next Shinobi War?"

Infuriated at his brother's words, Sasuke's control broke and his eyes flashed angrily. "They have to pay!... For what they did to our clan…our parents…" Sasuke screamed enraged. His mouth trembled as he looked at his ghostly transparent brother.

"I have to make them pay for what they did… to you," he choked out as if consumed by pain. Striving to bring himself under control he leaned forward and put his face in his hands.

After a few emotionally taut moments, he looked up at his brother with much calmer and resolute eyes.

"I will avenge you and the Uchiha, no matter the cost," Sasuke proclaimed to him harshly through clenched teeth.

Seeing his brother so full of hatred and vengeance caused Itachi's chest to clench like a fist was squeezing his heart. It made him want to curse those damn obstinate Uchiha genes they both had. Unlike him who valued peace at any cost, Sasuke was a true Uchiha through and through.

Glaring at his brother, he pushed down the urge to want to beat the hell out of him, and focused instead on how to make him reason. "Even if it costs you your life?"

Sasuke's chin lifted higher. "Yes…nothing else matters to me."

_No Sasuke_.

Itachi began to feel despondent, for if _he _couldn't get Sasuke to change his mind about revenge then probably no one could.

Itachi could feel his spiritual energy weakening and knew he was running out of time. "Sasuke, you are allowing your emotions to cloud your judgement. Madara is using you, and when he is finished with you, he will probably kill you himself… do not trust him," he warned him, his voice was laced with quiet desperation.

"I don't trust him," Sasuke replied angrily, his expression then became disdainful. "In fact, after I am finished with Danzo and the elders…I am going to kill him."

Itachi rolled his eyes in derision at his reckless brother's naivety.

"You're a fool if you believe you are strong enough to defeat him by yourself," he told him harshly.

"So be it then...if I die, I die," Sasuke replied with a shrug, his voice held not even a trace of emotion.

Itachi met his brother's eyes and at the relentlessly stubborn look in them he sighed. There obviously was nothing left for him to say, he began to fade out.

"Before you go brother, answer me this." Sasuke's voice stopped him and he took a deep breath.

"Do you regret now, you didn't kill me on that day?" Sasuke asked him in an offhand way, but his body was rigid and his face held a nervous intensity.

Itachi looked at Sasuke closely and saw some of his baby brother, the one that always looked up to him, still remained in him; it gave him a small glimmer of hope.

"No Sasuke, I do not regret it," he answered without any hesitation.

Itachi watched as a sliver of the nervous tension left his brother's body and face.

Feeling the energy rapidly draining from his body, Itachi held on to ask one last thing of his brother. "Sasuke, take care of Hinata for me, she has been exiled from Konoha, because she tried to help us. We are obligated to protect her."

Sasuke watched as his brother was fading away from him. Sorrow and pain tore at his insides as he didn't want it to be this way, but he had no choice. He was an avenger and he couldn't rest from what needed to be done. However, he couldn't refuse his brother's request, he owed him that much at least, even if she _was_ a distraction, he would do it for him.

"I will protect her," Sasuke promised him with a sigh.

Itachi nodded in sad approval, before he faded away from his brother's sight completely.

**[Back in Konoha]**

Stunned faces looked at Kakashi-sensei, realizing he had finally gone and done it-he had finally lost his mind. Those Icha-Icha books have finally melted his brain.

"Hinata? Are you insane Kakashi-sensei! I like Hinata and all, but she is practically afraid of her own shadow," Naruto blurted out without thinking.

Kakashi shook his head as he looked at his idiot pupil. _She was pretty brave in her defense of you from what I heard,_ he thought to himself sarcastically.

"Hey Naruto, that's my team-mate you're talking about, and you are wrong about her. She can be pretty brave when she has to be," Kiba said bristling in defense of Hinata.

"Woof!" Akamaru barked and bared his teeth menacingly. Kiba immediately reached over and calmed his partner down.

At Kiba's words and defense of Hinata, Naruto looked a little shamefaced. He suddenly remembered how she stood up against Pein to protect him. He realized he had forgotten what she had done for him. _I didn't even thank her, _he thought feeling like a complete asshole.

Naruto lowered his head and sighed. "I'm sorry Kiba, you are right about her. I just don't think she is up to Sasuke, I mean, he is brutal and the last time Sakura and I saw him he almost tried to kill us," Natruto admitted reluctantly.

A fist shot out and punched him lightly on the arm causing Naruto to wince in pain.

"Oh Naruto, you exaggerate. Sasuke would never try to kill us; he was just trying to scare us," Sakura said automatically in defense of Sasuke. As usual, she was in complete denial when it came to anything bad about him.

She wasn't the only one who was in denial when it came to Sasuke and Naruto proved it by his next words. "We—ll, you could be right, but you have to admit, someone like Hinata would not be up to dealing with someone like the Teme," Naruto admitted.

"Stop saying things like that about her!" Kiba growled as he lunged toward Naruto.

Kakashi got in the middle of them before a fight broke out.

"Break it up you two. This is not the time for this," he told them slightly irritated as he yanked them roughly apart.

"But…Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto whined before he was silenced as Sakura's fist connected with his jaw. He flew several feet and landed awkwardly at the base of a tree.

"Shut up Naruto!" She said shaking her fist in his direction.

Kiba began to laugh at Naruto's getting his ass handed to him by his bitchy team-mate.

Sakura glared at him forcing him to back away from her and whimper slightly.

Naruto shook himself dazedly as he looked over at his sensei. "So what _are _we going to do about Sasuke?"

Kakashi looked over at him and shook his head over his pupil's obtuse stubbornness. "I told you, Danzo will not allow you to leave the village…so _you_ cannot do anything about him," he reminded him patiently.

"Damn it, I can't just sit around and do nothing. I have to go find him and warn him," he yelled in frustration as Kakashi was trying his patience with all this talk of waiting.

"I am going too," Sakura told him stubbornly as she folded her arms on her chest.

Kiba, not to be outdone by them, stood up too. "Hey, I guess Akamaru and I are going too, someone has to look out for Hinata," he said with a feral grin.

Kakashi looked over at all of them thoughtfully for a moment considering all of the possible consequences of their actions. Finally, his glance landed on Naruto and he figured he was going to go look for Sasuke whether he wanted him to or not. He might as well tag along and keep them out of trouble.

"Fine, but we need to wait until after Danzo leaves in the morning to attend the Gokage conference."

At his acceptance of their plans, they all grinned.

Kakashi looked over at Naruto and cautioned him. "Naruto, Danzo will no doubt assign Root to watch over you while he is gone. You are going to have to lose them and find us outside of the front gate."

Naruto looked mischievous as he remembered his younger days when ANBU used to chase him all over Konoha.

"N-o problem," he told him offhandedly as he waved his hand. "Consider it done."

Kakashi watched as they all scattered to go home and get ready. Shaking his head, he wondered what the hell he was getting himself into.

* * *

Hinata stood away from them and listened to their conversation with tears streaming down her face. She knew that discussion had been very painful for the two of them and it tore her up. After spending so much time with both of them, she was beginning to consider them to be her friends.

Seeing Itachi had faded from sight she went over to Sasuke to try to comfort him. Reaching out slowly she laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Um…Sasuke…are you alright?" Hinata asked him tentatively as she felt him flinch as soon as she touched him.

"I'm fine," he replied distantly.

"Oh Sasuke…I am so sorry for both of you," she told him tearfully.

Sasuke sighed irritably. He just wanted to be left alone; the last thing he wanted was to have her see him like this.

He turned around and looked at her tearful face and for a moment he felt tempted to rest his head on her ample chest and allow himself to be soothed by her.

The moment soon passed when he saw her bottom lip begin to tremble and he searched deeper into her eyes and saw reproach lurking within them. He closed his eyes and turned away from her knowing she agreed with his brother and thought what he was doing was wrong.

Looking out over the water, he breathed out deeply and kept his gaze away from her. He knew seeing that censorious look in her eyes was more than he could tolerate right now.

"Hinata, go back to the cabin. I will be there shortly," he told her in a hollow, but firm voice as he continued to stare out straight ahead of him.

Hinata closed her eyes as the familiar feeling of rejection washed over her, she was just trying to help him.

Sighing sadly she left him and looked around for Itachi. There was no way she was going to stay in that cabin with Sasuke's team-mates by herself. They were just too awful, she thought as a shudder ran through her.

Relief flooded her when she finally spotted his ghostly form down by the river. She hurried over to him and stopped suddenly as she sensed his mood was pensive.

Hinata became alarmed when Itachi didn't even acknowledge her presence. He was completely still and appeared to be deep in thought as he stared out over the water with unseeing eyes.

Hinata was shaken to the core see him act like this, he wasn't the type of person to brood. In all of the tough situations they have been in, he always worked through the problem and found a solution. It was one of the things she admired about him.

Her heart ached for him and she tried to lay her hand on his shoulder and it passed right through him.

Hinata gasped when she saw him move. Staring at her hand in front of her she shivered as she felt how numbingly cold his presence was. It occurred to her that like him, she too sometimes forgot he was a ghost.

He turned slowly toward her with blank eyes. "I couldn't reach him, Hinata."

The sheer bleakness behind his words caused Hinata to put her face in her hands. His sorrow was crushing her, but also caused an overwhelming sense of protectiveness to rise up in her. Both of them were her friends, so she had to keep trying to help them.

Unable to bear seeing Itachi dejected looking and sad, she made up her mind to never quit trying to save his brother.

"Itachi, we have to keep trying to save Sasuke. I made a promise to help you…and I don't ever go back on my word."

Itachi smiled reluctantly at her attempt to encourage him as her voice broke slightly on the last word.

At seeing the stubborn, protective look on her face it hit him that she now considered both him and Sasuke to be included on her short list of "precious people."

A feeling of dread came over him. He breathed out deeply, when he remembered what she did the last time someone precious to her was in trouble.

She took on Pein all by herself.

* * *

Hinata sat next to him on the ground, freezing as the air around him was always brutally cold. But she stayed with him, unwilling to leave him alone while he was upset.

Next to her, she saw him move and turned to her. "Hinata, I have to go to for a while and rest myself, you should return to the cabin and go to bed," he told her as he started to stand up.

Activating her Byakugan, she saw Sasuke was still outside down the way from them, staring out over the water. A small shudder ran through her at the thought of being alone with his team-mates. She would rather stay outside in the cold.

"What's the matter?" Itachi asked her as he saw her hesitate to go inside.

"It's okay…I will see you in the morning," she replied pretending everything was fine.

Itachi stared at her tiredly, figuring out immediately what the problem was after seeing his brother was still outside.

He sighed; realizing he could not stay here any longer tonight. His spiritual energy was almost completely gone after talking to his brother.

"Um…Itachi?" Hinata asked him nervously. "Do you think you could take me with you?"

Itachi stared at her for a moment and realized it was possible for him to bring her to that other dimension, especially since she had been there before. She just didn't realize the temptation she represented to him.

To be able to touch her skin and be physically in her peaceful presence was very tempting to him. He closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about it. When he opened them again he was staring straight into her soft lavender eyes that were enticing him to say yes.

"Please Itachi."

Unable to resist her, he agreed. Besides he did not want her to have to deal with that perve Suigetsu alone.

"Close your eyes Hinata," he directed her tiredly.

Trusting him completely, Hinata closed her eyes and immediately gasped out loud as she felt a frigidly cold pull of gravity take over her body. Soon, it was all over and everything became dark.

* * *

Sasuke shifted his weary shoulders and decided to head inside. Looking around he spotted Hinata asleep not too far away from him on the ground. As he walked towards her he felt something was different with her, he ran the last few steps toward her.

Bending over her, he could hear she was still breathing, but something was off. The light, peaceful presence he always felt around her was gone. He looked her over closely and saw no sign of trauma or injuries on her body. Frowning slightly, he picked her up and carried her back to the cabin and after ignoring the looks his idiot team-mates gave him, he laid her on his bed and covered her up.

As Sasuke, brushed his teeth, he began to regret his actions earlier. He should have known she would not want to be around his team-mates without him around. He just hoped she was alright and nothing was seriously wrong with her.

Coming out of the bathroom, he saw several worried pairs of eyes on him.

"Get all your gear ready, we leave in the morning," he told them brusquely, just before he laid down next to Hinata and closed his eyes.

**Author's Note: (Edited: 4/6/12) **I was absolutely thrilled by the amount of response I received from all of you on the last chapter. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with me what you liked about the chapter or things you would like to see more of in the story. (Itahina fans I heard you loud and clear lol) Regarding who Hinata ends up with, I have made up my mind. I am just not going to share that info with all of you yet…sorry.

Also, one last thing…The place Itachi is taking her is the same place he took her in the very first chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Ch 10**

* * *

Waking up slowly, Hinata breathed in deeply as a marvelous sense of well-being took over her body. Like last time, she was dressed in a pure white gown of the softest material she had ever felt. Touching the material lightly with her fingers a soft sigh of contentment escaped her lips.

Hinata opened her eyes and found that the room wasn't nearly as bright as it had been the last time she was here. It was still pure white, but it was as if the light had been dimmed slightly.

Glancing over beside her, she saw Itachi sleeping with his arm barely touching hers. Like her, he was leaning up against the wall. Warmth began to creep up her cheeks as she noticed for the first time since she woke up he had his hand wrapped around hers.

Unable to think there was anything more than friendship between them, she rationalized his holding her hand was merely him needing some human contact.

Looking down at his hand holding hers, she had to admit it felt…nice. It made her feel less lonely and she decided to just leave it where it was.

Closing her eyes she allowed herself to fall back asleep. It was just so clean and restful here; it made her never want to leave.

A few hours later, Itachi woke up and immediately gazed over at Hinata. His eyes roamed hungrily over her and savored the touch of her shoulder and her hand wrapped snugly in his.

He had only been pretending to be asleep when she woke up earlier; knowing she would be less likely to break physical contact with him if she thought was sleeping.

_Kami, I am so pathetic,_ he thought with mocking self-derision.

Itachi leaned his head back in amused frustration and decided a little bitterly the fates must hate him. To have him fall in love with someone after he was already dead was like some sort of sick joke, except he sure as hell didn't find it amusing.

Feasting his eyes on her while she slept, he thought it was a cruel joke indeed.

A few minutes later Hinata shifted and ending up laying her head on his shoulder. Murmuring softly in her sleep, she snuggled closer to him.

Closing his eyes as if in pain, Itachi leaned his head slightly against hers. Resting his cheek on her head he breathed in deeply the sweet scent of lavender that always surrounded her. Unable to resist, he turned a little towards her and lightly brushed his lips against her hair.

_Damn, _he swore mentally and held himself completely still when he felt her move and begin waking up.

* * *

Waking up after she felt something soft touch her head, Hinata's eyes opened wide when she noticed she was sleeping on Itachi's shoulder. She quickly moved away from him and put her hands up over her face, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

"Oh Itachi!" She said outloud and immediately thought her voice sounded unnaturally loud and out of place in this environment. It was as if anxiety, fear, and embarrassment did not have a place up here. Only peace and tranquility belonged in a place as pure as this.

Closing her eyes to calm herself down, she apologized to him somewhat formally. "I-I am so sorry…please forgive me for disturbing your rest."

"It's fine Hinata, go back to sleep," Itachi replied as if he was bored.

Glancing over at her with lowered eyelids, he mourned the loss of her hand held in his and the feel of her as she leaned against him. He felt the air swirl between them and noticed she was at least a foot away from him now.

He mocked himself as he thought he got what he deserved for kissing her. It seemed like in death as well as life; if he tries to reach for more than he is given, he always ends up empty handed.

With those depressing thoughts on his mind, he tried to relax and go back to sleep. A few moments later he was surprised when Hinata scooted over a little closer to him and placed her hand securely around his.

Carefully covering up his pleasure at having her near him again, he looked over at her with blank expression.

At seeing his dark eyes on her and because of her actions, Hinata blushed and looked away from him.

"Gomen Itachi, I just…thought you might need… a friend," she told him shyly. "And maybe you…are…a little lonely?"

Itachi closed his eyes and looked away from her and silently applauded her for her instincts and her ability to read him. No one else has ever been able to see the real him. For it seemed for most of his life for one reason or another he has had to keep his true self carefully hidden.

"Yes," he replied tiredly.

Squeezing his hand slightly in comfort Hinata turned to him. "Me too," she replied feeling very comfortable sitting in this place with him. It was just so nice, it was as if nothing bad could ever happen here.

Hinata relaxed her shoulders and leaned her head back slightly and tried to fall back asleep. It was like the air around them was so clear and refreshing, that you didn't need to actually sleep to feel rested.

"Um Itachi?" She asked him softly, not knowing if he was awake or not.

"Hmm," he replied without looking at her.

She breathed out a little relieved that he was already awake.

"I-I can't sleep," she admitted to him a bit timidly.

Next to her, Itachi smiled slightly to himself.

"Sleeping isn't necessary while you are here," he explained to her. "When I take you back you will feel completely replenished, as if you slept all night."

Hinata's eyes lit up when she realized that she had been right all along about this place.

"I thought there was something unusual about this place. When I was here last time with you, I was so frightened of you…and worried about what was happening back at home that I didn't notice it," she admitted feeling a little foolish at her previous fear of him. "So, what exactly is this place?"

Itachi looked at the blank wall across from him for a moment before he answered her. "As I explained before, this area is somewhat in-between the world of the living and the afterlife. The feeling of peace and tranquility you probably sense in here is only a partial glimpse of the serenity that you will experience when you cross over into the afterlife," he told her with a small amount of longing in his voice to go to the other place.

"Ah, I see," she said taking a deep cleansing breath. "I knew I felt something was different here. It is like the air is so pure and clear that a lot of the things that fog up my mind back home don't exist here."

Itachi stretched his legs out a little and agreed with her, "Hai, you are right. I come here often to get away and think."

Hinata listened to his voice and the thought went through her that she could never grow tired listening to him. His voice was beautifully timbered and very soothing.

She frowned a little to herself as she wondered where that stray thought came from. Brushing aside her absurdity, she gave him her full attention.

Itachi sat next to her and maintained the façade that he was only her friend with perfection. It was true, he _was_ her friend. It wasn't a word that he normally used to describe himself, but with her, it was true. However, for him, practically from the moment he met her, he could feel the strange pull she had over him.

As he gave her a sideways glance, he wondered what would have happened if he hadn't intervened with her fight against Pein. He knew she probably would have died and… he didn't let himself finish that thought.

Somehow, he knew even if she had died they still wouldn't be together. Unlike him, someone as pure as her would have no problems at all crossing over. Besides he knew she had things she wanted to accomplish still on earth. He was glad for her sake that she was still alive; the world was a better place for those on earth because she was in it.

He sighed and knew all of that was true, but a part of him just longed to have her by him. If all he could have from her was friendship, he would take that too.

_I really am a lovesick fool,_ he complained to himself caustically.

His thoughts were interrupted as Hinata turned shyly toward him and looked like she wanted to ask him something, but was a little afraid of offending him to ask. He looked back at her calmly and tried to make himself seem approachable.

"Um…Itachi?" She asked him finally, unable to contain her curiously any longer. "I was wondering…what's it like being dead?"

At her question, Itachi closed his eyes as he thought sometimes it was pure hell.

_Pure undiluted hell_.

The fact that he couldn't be there to help save his brother, and beat some sense into him. Not to mention, he couldn't have her.

Hinata looked at his face and saw a flash of pain and something else she couldn't identify cross his face. Frowning, she could of swore she saw something that looked like he was longing for something just before he closed his eyes.

Shaking her head slightly as she waited for him to answer her, she dismissed what she saw and thought she was only imagining things. Itachi didn't seem like he was the type of person who ever longed for anything. She had never met anyone more self-reliant than he was.

"Freedom," he finally answered her after a long moment of silence.

Being unable to tell her the whole truth about what it really was like, he decided to tell her the greatest benefit death has brought him.

Hinata looked over at him with questioning eyes.

He sighed and looked away from her as if he was not comfortable about talking about himself.

"Freedom from what Itachi?" She asked him softly as she leaned closer to him.

"Pain."

Itachi breathed out deeply as he remembered back to just before he died.

The excruciating pain he felt in his lungs and chest; the endless charade of pretending to be healthy when he felt like his chest was caving in on him; the blood and all of the killing that never seemed to stop.

Most of all it was a relief to be out from under the crushing weight of being an Uchiha and the destroyer of his clan.

When he died he was glad to be done with all of it.

The pain of unrequited love was almost ridiculous compared to what he had been through in the past.

Still, he wished he would have been alive earlier in the day to be able to deal with his arrogant, revengeful brother. Just thinking about what he wanted to do to his brother made his hand clench violently.

Hinata leaned closer to him and put one of her arms around him to comfort him.

Itachi had to resist the urge to breathe in deeply her presence and promptly let all thoughts of his self-centered little brother vanish from his mind.

"So you don't feel pain anymore?" She asked him hopefully?

Burying his face in the hollows of her neck and shoulder, he had to admit wasn't feeling any pain right now, far from it.

"No, I don't feel any pain," he said.

_At least not physical pain anyway, _he thought backing himself away from her a little to keep himself from turning and kissing the the silky skin on her neck with his mouth.

"I am so glad Itachi," Hinata said softly as she patted his back in a friendly and comforting manner. Her face became sad as she thought his life must have been very hard if he felt death was the only way out.

Tears began to fall from her eyes, because he was only a few years older than her.

Itachi heard her sniffling and reluctantly lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at her. Lifting his hand slowly he gently wiped the tears off her face.

"You are very soft-hearted for a shinobi." He told her firmly almost as if he was lecturing her.

Hinata smiled slightly to herself thinking he was not very good at comforting people. Looking over at him, she had to admit was almost an endearing quality of his that he was so unemotional.

She looked up at him again and he looked back at her just as they have a dozen times during the past hour. Except that this time something happened.

Something in the way they looked at each other suddenly became...intimate, rather than friendly.

Hinata turned away as her awareness of him as something more than a friend surprised her. Her cheeks became warm when she thought how for just a moment she had wanted to lean forward and touch his lips with hers.

Hinata began to wonder what was wrong with her lately. First she let Sasuke kiss her in that extremely passionate manner, now she was thinking about kissing his brother, who by the way-was a ghost. And her good friend.

Hinata looked over at Itachi under lowered eyelids and had to admit, that both of the brothers were undeniably good looking. Sasuke was almost dazzlingly attractive, but…she sighed as she looked over at Itachi who turned her way and was watching her quietly.

He was something more than attractive, what he had went well beyond looks. It was as if his whole person was…

…beautiful to her_._

Her mouth went "Oh" after she finished that disturbing thought.

Denial was the first thing she could think of to do. She didn't want to ruin what was between them with…messy feelings. Besides, she was pretty sure he didn't think about her in that way. She was just happy he wanted to be her friend.

Since she met him, it has been almost her secret that she had a friend like him. Especially since she has been the only one who could see and hear him most of the time. His friendship was one of the few good things she had going in her life.

Shaking her head in denial, she didn't want to change what was between them. She valued the relationship she had with him too much.

She decided to forget that look between them ever happened and hoped that he did too.

Leaning against the wall, she was shocked when she opened her eyes and saw his face was close to hers and he dipped his head closer to her and gave her a soft kiss.

"Go to sleep Hinata, the sun will be rising in a few hours," Itachi told her pragmatically as he ignored her completely and leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

_That was a friendly kiss…right?_ She asked herself confused.

Leaning against the wall, Itachi mentally castigated himself for being an idiot. He realized he shouldn't have kissed her; it just complicated things between them. He decided it would be best if he just stayed away from her before he had to take her back.

A few hours later he woke her up and warned her he was taking her back.

Sighing reluctantly, Hinata hoped he would allow her to come back here again sometime. She had to admit, she never felt better in her life physically. Her body felt wonderfully rested and refreshed. Too bad she couldn't say that about her mental state of mind.

She couldn't stop thinking about the kiss he gave her.

"Hinata close your eyes."

"Okay, thank you for allowing me to come back here," she told him warmly, looking down at his feet. Somehow she noticed that even his bare feet were nice to look at.

_Oh no!_ She thought in alarm recognizing the signs all too well.

She closed her eyes and felt the darkness begin to overtake her. Just before she succumbed to the pull of gravity, she felt the briefest touch on her mouth and smiled for just a second, knowing he had kissed her again.

* * *

Hinata felt the sensation of re-entering her body. Again it felt like she was too big to fit into it, and then she was inside herself again. Opening her eyes, she stared straight into very close, slightly hostile onyx eyes.

Looking into his eyes, she felt herself suddenly missing calmer more peaceful dark eyes.

"Welcome back," Sasuke told her, his eyes were watching hers very closely as he leaned forward and tried to look even more deeply into them.

Hinata immediately scooted away from him in the bed and decided to play dumb.

"What do you mean?" She said as she put on the most sleepy and vacant look she had.

Sasuke frowned for a moment, knowing that something had happened to her last night. He decided to let it go, it wasn't important and he had other things going on today.

"Gather your things, we are leaving," he told her brusquely.

"Okay," Hinata said relieved that he didn't press her about where she had been.

"I will give you the choice to either stay or come with us. It is up to you," he told her offhandedly, as if he didn't care either way.

Hinata gazed up and saw Itachi come through the roof and remembered her promise to help him.

"I will come with you."

**Author's Note: (4/6/12) **I wrote this chapter in response to all of the extremely encouraging reviews, alerts, etc. First off, writing dialogue between these two is extremely difficult. I hope you all appreciate my all my hard work and effort and give me a little leeway if Itachi seem OOC. I will make sure on the next chapter that I make him in character as much as possible.


	11. Chapter 11

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 11**

* * *

"_Nii-san…that's one down…" Uchiha Sasuke, manga Ch. 480._

* * *

Traveling towards Konoha, Hinata and Sasuke were up front, Karin and Suigetsu were in the center and Jugo followed in the rear.

Looking out in the distance, as only she could with her Byakugan, Hinata did not see anyone else near them.

"All clear," she reported to Sasuke.

A short while later, they emerged from the dark forest into the bright sunlight. Looking around, Sasuke spotted a small stream below them.

"Let's take a break," he told them as he jumped below the trees and settled himself down under a tree and closed his eyes. Unsure of where else to go and not wanting to get too close to his team-mates, Hinata sat down next to him.

At seeing the stream of water, Suigetsu jumped in eagerly and began playing around absorbing water into his dried out cells. A sneaky grin broke over his face as he saw Karin was standing next to the stream with her back turned toward him. Seeing his chance, he sprayed a huge stream of water at her, soaking her from head to toe.

Dripping wet and outraged, Karin screamed, "Baka! Just wait till you get out!" She said shaking her fist at him. "You are so dead!"

Sitting next to Sasuke under a tree, Hinata handed him her canteen.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw she was watching his team-mates with an amused look in her eyes.

Sasuke sighed, "I know they are a collective pain in the ass," he said caustically.

Hinata grinned shyly as she turned to him, and he casually handed her back the canteen. After taking a sip, she set it down between them.

"Hai, they seem to be …um…a little eccentric at times," she replied politely as she watched them. After a moment she laughed softly as though to herself. "Itachi thinks you have a high tolerance for pain for putting up with all of them."

At her mention of his brother, Sasuke stiffened, his lips became compressed.

"They have their uses," he replied to her, his voice distant.

At hearing the sadness in his voice, Hinata instantly regretted mentioning his brother to him. Suddenly feeling awkward around him, she nervously picked up her canteen again and took a long drink.

"So, where is my brother now?" Sasuke asked her tightly as he looked around with his Sharingan.

"I don't know…" Hinata replied anxiously as she looked around with her Byakugan. "Um…I think he went to Konoha."

"Konoha." Sasuke bit out harshly with a sneer. "It's always _precious _Konoha with him."

Hinata flinched at his bitter tone and began inching away from him.

"What about honor?" He ground out, his eyes hard. "Konoha oppressed and cornered my clan into a compound like prisoners for years and when the Uchiha decided to fight back- the leadership and Third Hokage slaughtered them," he told her his mouth was severe with pain.

Hinata sat there on the verge of tears as she listened to him, knowing instinctively he probably had never told anyone else these things.

"To make things worse, those bastards backed my brother into a corner, using his peaceful ideals against him… they forced him to… destroy his own family."

Feeling his pain deeply, and hurting for both brothers, Hinata reached over and made soothing noises as she rubbed his back.

Flinching at her touch, Sasuke shook off her hand and glared angrily at her, knowing deep down she wanted him to give up his quest for vengeance.

"No Hinata-I can't let this go, no matter what my brother wants. I have to make them pay for what they did to my clan," Sasuke said as he grabbed her arm and searched intently into her eyes. In her wide eyes he saw empathy and compassion, but he also saw the same thing he had clearly seen in Itachi's eyes when he spoke to him.

_Dissappointment and disapproval._

He released her arm and clenched his hand into a tight fist. _No one understands my pain. Not her, not my brother…no one. _Did they think I could just let it go and forgive them—and go back to Konoha? His mind spat out painfully.

Not only that, he couldn't forgive himself.

Once the floodgates holding back his pain and hatred had opened, he couldn't stop the rest from coming out. He gave a tortured groan. "My brother is a ghost…a fucking ghost!" He spewed out, shaking with rage before dropping his head. "And I helped him become one. I killed my own brother," Sasuke said with a tortured breath and put his face in his hands.

At the sheer amount of tortured pain on his face, Hinata broke down beside him and was going to hold him when Itachi suddenly appeared before them. She could tell Sasuke saw him too by the look of shock on his face.

"Sasuke." Itachi said, his voice was ominously quiet. "You're coming with me."

A few seconds later, Itachi disappeared and Sasuke slumped over. Hinata heard Itachi's deadly calm voice in her ear. "Watch over his body for me until we return."

Breathing a deeply relieved breath, Hinata was glad Itachi was taking him to that peaceful place. She hoped they would be able to have a nice talk and hopefully work things out.

Sasuke woke up in a bright white room, but didn't have time to look around as his brother's fist knocked him across the room. Bumping his head on the wall across from him he slid down the wall and slumped on the floor.

"Sasuke," Itachi's voice was deadly quiet as he stared down at him on the pristine floor now speckled with his blood. Picking him up by the scuff of his shirt Itachi held him in front of him.

"My foolish brother," Itachi told him coldly before spinning him around and ruthlessly slamming him on the ground.

A hard light was in his eyes as he advanced toward his younger brother. "I have been watching you and listening to you whine long enough, Sasuke." Itachi said coolly between clenched teeth. "Now, you are going to listen to me."

Wiping his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand, Sasuke stood up with a rebellious light glowing in his eyes. "Fine," he said and assumed a ready stance. A flash of excitement ran through his mind at the thought of fighting his brother again. He knew Itachi would not be holding back on him this time…

Meanwhile back in Konoha…

"What the hell happened to you?" Sakura screeched as she looked at Naruto's swollen and bruised face. "You look like you have been trying to steal food from Choji or something."

"I am fine, I don't want to talk about it," he told her as he looked away from her.

Kakashi looked at Naruto and figured out what happened to him. He saw those cloud ninja walking around, he bet it had something to do with them.

A few moments later Sakura came to the same conclusion and became angry. It was okay if she beat the crap out of Naruto, but she didn't like it when others did it. She smacked him on the back of the head.

"Oww," Naruto complained loudly while rubbing his head. "What'd ya do that for?"

"You idiot," she said fondly. _I hope Sasuke appreciates all that you have done for him, s_he thought as she looked at him softly. Catching Kakashi-sensei watching her she saw he thought the same thing.

"Come on everyone, let's go find Sasuke," Kakashi told the group calmly as he began to lead them away from Konoha.

"Kiba, have you been able to locate Hinata's scent?"

"Hai Kakashi-sensei, I found her," he said with a worried frown. "You are right; she is with Sasuke and his team-mates."

A nervous tension spread through the group as they remembered Sasuke's rogue ninja status. They didn't want Hinata harmed because of him.

"Let's move out," Kakashi said a little grimly as he looked out in the distance.

* * *

Hinata propped Sasuke up against the tree and tried to remain calm, hoping his team-mates would simply think he was just sleeping and leave both of them alone. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for her to see that wasn't going to happen. It seemed that luck just wasn't with her lately.

Still soaking wet, Karin suddenly couldn't sense Sasuke's chakra and began freaking out.

"Sasuke!" She screamed out desperately while running over to him. Slapping his face over and over, Hinata watched as she stuck her arm in his mouth trying to get him to bite her.

"Bite me Sasuke!" Karin screamed out anxiously.

Inwardly recoiling from the strange fuchsia-haired ninja, Hinata wondered what she was doing.

Finally turning on Hinata, Karin grabbed her by the front of her shirt.

"What-did-you-do-to-him?" She screeched out while slapping Hinata hard across the face, before throwing her on the ground.

Hinata stood up and felt blood begin to trickle down out of the corner of her mouth.

Wiping her mouth with the side of her hand, she noticed all of them were advancing on her. Backing up nervously, she stammered out defensively. "I-I…d-didn't do…a-anything…to h-him."

"Liar," Karin screamed as she ran at Hinata with her arms flailing around in an undisciplined manner. Hinata activated her Byakugan and ducked under her arms and closed off a couple of her chakra points, trying to slow her down.

Karin, hissing in pain, backed off slightly.

"S-sasuke is fine." Hinata told all of them, suddenly becoming a little angry at getting pushed around by these guys.

"Now leave me alone," she told them while standing up taller, her Hyuuga heritage showing in every word she spoke.

"Wow, you are so… hot," Suigetsu told her as he admired the way she looked as she stood up to them.

Standing next to Jugo, Karin was sick with envy at the thought that _this girl _was taking over her place on the team. She had been holding in her anger as several times throughout the day, while travelling, Sasuke had deferred to this girl and her Byakugan over her.

_Who the hell does she think she is? This is my team and Sasuke belongs to me,_ her mind boiled over as she rushed at Hinata again.

Hinata dodged the fist that came at her head, but used the opportunity to close off a couple of her tenketsu in Karin, as her body was in close proximity to her.

Karin's face was contorted with rage, as she quickly jumped toward her and roughly pushed Hinata down. Standing up and completely focused, Hinata decided it was time to stop being nice to these people. (AN: Remember how her face looked as she fought Guren in the fillers in the anime :)

"Sasuke is mine!" Karin screamed out with a crazy light in her eyes and began trying to pummel Hinata with her fists. Easily evading the erratic blows, Hinata calmly, but efficiently began closing off her chakra points every time she came close. Finally seeing her chance, Hinata changed her stance and looked at her opponent who was clearly out of control.

"Sasuke doesn't belong to anyone… and he is only my friend," she said quietly deciding to end this now before someone really got hurt.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms," Hinata said out loud as she began poking her two blows at a time with efficient fluidity, closing down Karin's chakra system.

"Two palms, four palms…"

Alarmed at seeing the chakra spike through Hinata's hands, Jugo knew he needed to step in soon before Karin got badly hurt. Running over to them, he quickly dragged her away after the sixteenth blow. He watched without sympathy as his bitchy team-mate collapsed in his arms. In his mind she got what she deserved. He looked over at the little Hyuuga with a slight amount of respect.

Breathing hard, Hinata felt a tiny bit proud of herself, but also felt bad as she looked at Sasuke's crazy team-mate. _Maybe, I shouldn't have closed off so many of her tenketsu._ She thought sympathetically, knowing how painful it was to have them closed off.

She glanced over at Suigetsu who was standing over Karin with unconcealed glee in his eyes. "Take that, you bitch, ha!" He told her talking smack as he got close to her unconscious face.

Turning toward Hinata with a slightly besotted look on his face, he grinned. "Not only are you hot, you are also really awesome."

Hinata blushed and immediately backed away from him at the worshipful look on his face. Holding out his arms he walked towards her and looked like he wanted to kiss her.

Overcome with revulsion, her eyes darted nervously toward Jugo. Her eyes pleaded desperately with him to help her.

Her eyes became wide with fear when she felt the sudden surge of evil chakra coming from him. Fighting down the urge to scream and panic, she activated her Byakugan and saw the erratic pulsing of chakra at the base of Jugo's neck.

Before she could even think rationally, she ran over to him and forced as much chakra out of her fingers as she possible could into his curse mark. A few short moments later, she looked over at him in shock as she felt his chakra go back to normal.

Awestruck, Jugo's jaw became slack as he looked over at her. She stopped his killing intent with one blow, not even Sasuke could do that. From that moment on, he decided no one was ever going to hurt her again. He had become her friend.

"Arigato Hinata-san," he told her respectfully with quiet gratitude.

Hinata's shoulders slumped as pure relief swept over her. Walking over to the tree to sit next to (still-unconscious) Sasuke, she hoped he was having a nice chat with his brother.

* * *

Looking down, Sasuke watched as the chidori fizzled out in his hand.

_Damn it._

"Lightning doesn't work in here brother," Itachi told him calmly as he grabbed Sasuke's hand, wrenched it into the wall, slammed his foot on his brother's foot and punched him in the gut.

Bending over in pain, Sasuke's mind wondered what kind of place was this.

Quickly dodging another blow from Itachi's foot, Sasuke tried to summon weapons and found that he was not able to.

"I'm afraid that you cannot do that either," Itachi said smirking unsympathetically. An unholy light shined in his eyes as he looked at his selfish little brother. He had been holding back for a long time and was ready to administer some serious pain on him.

"This is my domain, and I have decided we will only use Taijutsu."

Sasuke's face fell as he saw his brother activate his Sharingan. He remembered that Itachi has always been just a little bit better than he was at Taijutsu. Looking at his brother he glared at him…

A half hour later, Sasuke sat next to Itachi and found the soothing place was already beginning to heal his injuries. Wincing in pain as he moved his leg, he glanced over at Itachi he saw his brother had his normal placid expression back on his face. _Good,_ he thought to himself, he really didn't like it when Itachi was mad at him.

Seeing his brother looking at him, Itachi closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. After beating the crap out of him, he felt much better, and much more relaxed and it seemed Sasuke did too.

"So _little_ brother, what's on your mind?"

"Hn." Sasuke replied with a slight smirk. Deep down he knew he had deserved what he got from his brother. In some ways, it snapped him out of his rage and he felt freer, almost relaxed, for the first time since he had died.

He looked over at Itachi and was still amazed to see him have a physical body. Glancing around and feeling the peaceful atmosphere of this place he frowned slightly. "I thought you were supposed to be dead."

Itachi sighed, _not this again_. "I am."

"This place is between life and death, I was not allowed to cross over and be with mom and dad because of you."

A flicker of pain flashed over Sasuke's eyes.

"I am sorry brother," he said as he looked into his brother's calm eyes. He turned away as he knew he was lying a bit, part of him was glad that Itachi was still with him. After he had learned the truth, it had been his deepest wish, besides destroying Konoha, to see his brother again and talk to him.

Standing up suddenly, Itachi went over to the wall across from him and touched it. Sasuke watched in amazement as a window formed and he could see the other side through it.

"Outside this window is the after-life," he said as he pointed to a group of people. "There is mom and dad and the rest of our clan."

At seeing his family again, Sasuke's heart clenched in his chest with agony. He looked at his mother's dear face and a tear fell from his eye.

Itachi came and stood next to him and put his hand on his shoulder. "If you continue on your current path, you will not be allowed to spend eternity with them when you die," Itachi told him sadly. "This will be the last time you ever see them."

Closing his eyes in pain, Sasuke couldn't bear to look at his family anymore. It just hurt too much. He turned to his brother with anguish in his eyes. "I am doing all of this for them…someone has to avenge them," Sasuke gritted out harshly.

"I understand Sasuke, but you have already avenged them by killing me," he told him patiently. In his mind he cursed Madara for telling his brother the truth. _Bastard. _"In the eyes of the world you already brought honor back to the clan. After I died, I was hoping you would have returned to Konoha and began rebuilding the clan," Itachi told him with a slight amount of reproach in his voice.

Sasuke shook his head sadly. "There is nothing left for me in Konoha... I don't ever want to go back."

Irritated, Itachi glared at his brother. While he was in Konoha he watched Sasuke's former team-mates refuse to give up any information to the Cloud ninjas about him. Then he watched as Naruto stood there and got his ass beat, all for his self-absorbed brother.

"Idiot," Itachi said as he smacked his head. "You have many friends in Konoha. Some are so loyal to you, even after all that you have done, they are still trying to bring you home."

"I don't care; I have to avenge our clan," Sasuke told him stubbornly. "I cannot rest until the elders of Konoha are dead."

Itachi sighed and looked at his brother sadly. _I have to protect the living,_ Itachi thought to himself knowing that Kami did not want another war to happen.

"Fine Sasuke, kill the elders, but leave Konoha alone," Itachi told him reasonably.

"Tch, you know as well as I do, as soon as I try to kill one, others will try to protect them," Sasuke said flatly. "Killing innocent people will be unavoidable."

After a few moments of heavy silence and thinking that everything that needed to be said on the subject had been, Itachi nodded. "It's time we headed back; Hinata has been left with your pathetic team-mates long enough," he reminded him.

At the mention of Hinata, Sasuke looked a little sheepish. He had forgotten all about her. If his team-mates did anything to her, they were so dead, his mouth tightened at the thought. "Let's go back."

Looking down, Sasuke saw his body leaning against a tree with Hinata sleeping quietly next to him. Stepping over his lifeless body he felt himself climb back inside. For a moment it felt like he was too tight to fit inside and then all of a sudden he squeezed back in.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked around cautiously at his team-mates. Glancing over at Karin, his eyes narrowed, knowing she would probably figure out something was off with his chakra and then go after Hinata.

He was going to go talk to her when he saw she was unconscious on the ground. Curious, he looked over at Jugo, who glanced over at Hinata with a small grin on his face.

_Good for you, Hinata,_ Sasuke thought as he watched her sleep.

"Jugo, we are camping here for the night. I will discuss my plans with you in the morning."

* * *

Later that night, Itachi looked over at Hinata as she was with him in his peaceful room. He wrapped his hand around hers and feasted his eyes on her beautiful face.

Leaning her head back, she sighed happily. She was quietly ecstatic that he let her come back to this lovely place. After the day she had, she needed some peace, besides, she just wanted to be near him and be able to feel him next to her.

"Um Itachi?" She asked curiously. "How was your talk with your brother?"

A grim smile formed in his head, as he thought how his _talk_ with his brother was extremely satisfying.

"It was fine," he replied placidly. "How did things go with Sasuke's insane team-mates?"

A rush of emotions flooded her mind at his question. Fear, revulsion, anger…and then she allowed herself a small, yet satisfied smile in her mind. It had felt pretty good to stand up for herself for once.

"Oh, it was fine," Hinata replied calmly. "Good night, Itachi."

"Good night, Hinata," the ghost replied before allowing himself one more look at her, just before he closed his eyes for the rest of the night.

**Author's Notes**: ** (Edited: 4/7/12)** Wow you guys; I feel so encouraged (21 reviews!). Thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews you gave me for the last chapter. I had no choice but to update as soon as I could. Thanks so much….Anyway, I think this chapter has been building up for a while. I hinted in previous chapters that Itachi was getting pretty ticked off and since I gave him a chance to vent, I let Hinata have her shot too. I loved it…it was so fun to write. I am veering a little AU, I really don't want to get too bogged down writing about the cloud ninjas or focus too much on Naruto…Please let me know what you think about the direction I am going…


	12. Chapter 12

**Itachi's Ghost**

**~Chapter 12~**

* * *

**AN**_**: **__Helloooo…anybody out there...__I have decided to take this story off hiatus and begin posting chapters for it again. I appreciate so many of you taking the time to encourage me to keep posting for this story. This update is for all of you…thank you so much! _

* * *

Hinata felt the tight and uncomfortable sensation as her spirit was squeezed back into her body. For a moment, everything was dark and then she opened her eyes and took a deep breath as she knew she was back within herself again.

Glancing all around her with cautious eyes, she noticed it was still very early in the morning. She could tell by the sun that was just beginning to peak over the mountain tops and the ground was still heavily dampened with morning dew. Wrapping her arms around herself because of the cold morning air, she began to rub her hands over them as she looked next to her and saw Sasuke's dark hair hanging in his face as he slept next to her leaned up against a tree.

A soft almost maternal smile touched her face as she had a feeling he had probably watched over her for most of the night while she had been with Itachi.

Reaching over towards him slowly, she gently pushed his bangs out of his face. As her eyes drifted over his face, she took in the signs of strain and tiredness, the smudges under his eyes and wished he would listen to his brother and come back home where he belonged.

In the back of her mind, she felt it was her duty to bring him back to Konoha, but he was just too stubborn and would rather cling to hatred and pain rather than the people who cared about him.

As she released a tired sigh she felt in some ways she was an extension of all of the people back in Konoha who cared about him. A sense of frustration entered her mind as she sat next to him and wondered if he even knew just how much people cared about him. _Or did he even care?_ A pang touched her heart as she remembered one time watching Naruto and Sakura break out in tears when someone just happened to mention his name in front of them.

And Itachi, she knew it was eating away at him to see his brother walk in darkness. _There has to be something I can do to help him_, she thought as she pulled her knees up and leaned forward and rested her stubborn chin against them. _I made a promise to help bring him back and I will follow through on it…there has to be a way to get through to him._

Looking up, she saw Itachi's outline fade in by the river. Her breath sucked in as he seemed even more otherworldly than usual to her with the light mist hovering over the water and the flat gray stones in the river near him reflecting the early morning sunlight. And as he stood staring out into the distance…the faint outlines of him seemed so still…so lonely.

_Oh Itachi_…

Without even thinking about it, Hinata stood up and joined him by the water's edge.

The closer she came to him; a stray thought struck her that she was becoming used to seeing him very much alive and real when they were together in his peaceful place. This ghostly form just felt so wrong, almost unnatural to her and her mind strongly rebelled against the grim evidence right before her eyes… that her friend was dead and a ghost.

_He is alive - not dead, I just touched his hand a few hours ago…_

"Hinata." Itachi's emotionless voice greeted her and jarred her thoughts. As she moved closer to him she watched him try to place his hand on her shoulder but at the last moment a flash of irritation crossed over his face and he stopped himself. His hand went back down by his side.

Her lips quirked in a funny-sad way as she realized she wasn't the only one having difficulties with going back and forth in-between worlds. Apparently, so was he. Her stomach began to hurt as she began to think that maybe it would better for both of them if she stopped going to that place with him.

Her mind immediately rejected the thought as she knew she would never be able to tell him no. If he invited there back again, she knew absolutely that she would go without hesitation. His friendship and that place just meant too much to her, she didn't want to give them up if she didn't have to.

"I forget sometimes too." Hinata told him with forced cheerfulness as she tried to commiserate with him.

"I should know better." Itachi replied coolly and her eyes grew troubled as she heard the bitterness in his voice.

Shivering inside as she stood by him, her conscience made her realize that something _was_ wrong with him and their relationship.

Swallowing a lump in the back of her throat she began to tell him, "Itachi…maybe…I shouldn't go with you any…"

Itachi eyes were shuttered as he stared off into the distance, "Stay here, I will be back in a moment," He ordered her before disappearing suddenly.

After he left her and was immediately standing before Kakashi and the group of ninjas from Konoha, he mentally castigated himself for allowing some of his emotions to slip out in front of her. The last thing he wanted was for her to figure out how he felt about her...

As he looked around and saw them talking to a ninja that he recognized as being part of Root, he realized they had other more important things to deal with right now…

"Oh," Hinata exclaimed when Itachi surprised her by appearing out of nowhere beside her again. Their old topic of conversation was immediately forgotten when she saw the concerned look on his face.

"Hinata, go tell my brother, his old team-mates along with Kakashi are about five miles away to the east of us. I do not think a confrontation with them at this time would be advisable. Sasuke is too unpredictable at the moment to try it."

Alarmed and agreeing with him completely, Hinata ran over to Sasuke and saw Karin was also running towards him. Realizing she probably had the same information she stopped and patiently let the other girl talk first after they both stopped in front of him.

"Sasuke, there are several ninjas headed our way and I think they are travelling with a dog. Judging by their chakras I think they are from Konoha." Karin told him as she shot a smug look at Hinata.

Sasuke looked to Hinata with hard eyes for confirmation.

Keeping herself calm, she glanced over toward Itachi before she answered him. "Yes, it is true, Itachi just told me they are your old team-mates and Kiba and Akamaru must also be with them."

Sasuke's face grew hard before he stood up and looked at everyone in the camp. "Taka, it is time to move out."

oooOOOooo

As Sai headed out the village gates looking for Naruto, Danzo's words played through his head reminding him of the job he needed to do.

"_This is a crucial time pending the Jonin's vote of confidence…if I do something to Naruto, it will affect my position as Hokage. However, Naruto is also a jinchuriki and it is the Hokage's job to keep watch over him…I will not be as lenient as Tsunade was…" _Danzo threatened with all the subtlety of a hammer pounding on a nail and the look on his face instead of being grave came across more as being sinister.

After staring into the menacing eye of his boss, Sai had told him he understood - which he did only too well. Danzo wanted him to keep an eye on Naruto and he would do so…after all, it was his duty to follow orders – Root's orders.

A frown marked his normally placid face as he noted the distance from the gate and judging from the chakra up ahead, Naruto was not alone but was with a group. _What was he doing leaving the village and why were Sakura and Kakashi with him?_

Concerned and becoming more suspicious by the second, Sai increased his pace and caught up with them.

"Sai!" Sakura yelled when she spotted him, "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you had left the village and I was concerned." Sai responded blandly, his face muscles not moving at all.

Sakura and Naruto shared a quick and troubled look with Kakashi.

Looking around slowly, Sai noticed Kiba and was there too along with his dog. Akamaru bared his teeth at him with a whisper of a growl.

Kakashi sighed, "Danzo ordered you to keep watch over Naruto, didn't he?"

A small smirk touched Sai's lips when he noticed Kakashi-sensei did not call Danzo by his title of Hokage. "Yes, he did."

Sakura stepped in front of Naruto, her eyes were flashing. "I will not let you take him back, Sai."

At her protectiveness of him, Naruto looked a little baffled as he stood behind her. _Sakura-chan?_

"I am not trying to take him back; I am just required to keep watch over him." Sai disclosed without a hint of emotion in his voice.

"Are you going to report everything I do to him?" Naruto asked tightly beginning to get angry.

"Of course, I have to." Sai told him with matter of fact eyes.

Naruto and Sakura both groaned and shared a look with Kakashi, who with a glance told them to be patient.

"It is my duty to obey him." Sai responded automatically. "He is the leader of the foundation and now the Hokage, he is trying to keep the village safe."

Stifling an urge to vomit, Sakura looked at him with a harassed look on her face, "Speaking of our new Hokage, tell us what you know about him?"

"I can't." Sai refused.

"Why not?" Naruto blurted out loudly.

"I am literally unable to talk about Lord Danzo…" Sai told them before opening his mouth and revealing a black zipper-like curse mark on the back of his tongue.

"What the…what is that?" Naruto stuttered obtusely.

"Is that a curse mark?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it is…cast by Lord Danzo himself…so if one tried to talk about him, one becomes completely paralyzed, unable to speak or move…all of us in the foundation bear one." Sai informed them blandly.

Horrified, Sakura sputtered, "But that's so extreme…"

Sai continued to look at her without emotion, "That's how we have been able to protect and support Konoha from below. His methods may be heavy-handed but he does care very deeply about the village." Sai said in defense of his leader's actions.

Sakura snorted in derision before sharing a dark glance with Kakashi, "Then why did he revoke Lady Tsunade's edict regarding Sasuke?"

"He is planning to dispatch tracking units to chase after him!" Naruto yelled as his blue eyes flashed with a troubled light.

Sai looked perplexed as this was the first he had heard about it, "R-really?" he stated hesitantly. "He didn't mention anything about Sasuke to me…"

"Sasuke is in trouble." Naruto told him stubbornly as he picked up his back-pack and looked ready to move out to help his friend.

"Yeah, and we are going to warn him." Sakura told him with eyes that just dared him to try to stop them.

Sai stood there and was once again pulled unwillingly by the blind and unfailing loyalty his team-mates showed to their former team-mate. He looked closely at Naruto's heavily damaged face and a dent marred the serenity of his pale forehead.

"What happened to your face Naruto?" He asked and had a feeling Sasuke was involved somehow.

"Cloud Ninja." Naruto muttered before his eyes became shadowed. "They claim Sasuke kidnapped their teacher and has become a member of Akatsuki."

"What?" Sakura asked heatedly as she grabbed Naruto by the shoulders and began shaking him. "Why would Sasuke do such a thing?"

Naruto shook his head sadly before looking away from her, "I don't know…Sakura, but I am going to find out."

Watching these events on the peripheral, Kiba stood next to his partner, Akamaru, and was mystified that they still cared so much for Sasuke. In his mind the guy was a conceited jerk, and the only reason he was here was to look out for Hinata.

Akamaru barked suddenly and with a frown Kiba sniffed the air, "You are right, boy, they _are_ moving again. They must know we are nearby."

"Kiba, do you know what direction they are heading?" Kakashi asked him as he picked up his gear and placed it on his back.

"Yeah, he is just east of us." Kiba told him as he took a long sniff of the air. Akamaru gave a bark confirming it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Naruto questioned urgently as he looked towards the East. "Let's go already."

Kakashi and Sakura stared at Sai giving him their answer for not leaving right away.

"I need to come with you." Sai told them as the stillness of his stance told them he was not going to leave them. "I must follow orders."

"Come on, we need to leave." Kiba said urgently as he could feel Sasuke's group moving at a fast pace away from them. "They are getting away."

Kakashi stared at Sai for a long tense moment before relaxing. "He can come with us, now move out."

Sakura and Naruto were still uneasy as they looked at Kakashi and then back over to Sai before deciding to trust their sensei. Besides, Sai was still their team-mate and he seemed know how important Sasuke was and is to both of them…

"Okay, Sai, you can come with us." Sakura told him after giving him a long look before turning to follow Naruto.

"I will not do anything to harm Naruto or Sasuke." Sai promised her with his fake smile.

Sakura sighed as she hoped he was being honest with them, because if he wasn't…she balled her hand into a fist and cracked her knuckles…

oooOOOooo

"They are gaining on us, Sasuke." Karin shouted urgently from behind him as they travelled in formation with Sasuke in the lead.

Unperturbed, Sasuke stopped on a tree branch and gave the signal for everyone to stop. He turned hard black eyes on Hinata who was standing to the right of him waiting for him to give the signal to leave again.

"Hinata, I want you to go detain them." He stated firmly, his black eyes telling her not to argue with him.

Her eyes grew wide as she considered what he wanted her to do. Did he actually want _her_ to stop them from pursuing him? The idea was absurd and besides she had a promise to keep, she did not want to leave him. Squelching down her fear of him, Hinata ventured weakly, "D-don't you think you should try… to talk to them… and see what they want first?"

Almost unconsciously her eyes glanced toward Itachi who was floating to the left of his brother to see what he wanted her to do. She saw he was staring at Sasuke with irritation clearly marked on his face. He obviously did not like what his brother was asking her to do.

Sasuke saw Hinata's deference to his brother and was annoyed by it. The two of them were always together and they were clearly working against him. Their silent condemnation of his plans and their unified disapproval of him was beginning to grate on him.

Hinata needed to go. Period. She was too much of a distraction.

_Maybe if she left, then Itachi would too,_ he thought with resignation. Even though it pained him to give up seeing his brother, he knew it was for the best…there was nothing left to be said between them.

"You don't belong with us, go back to Konoha." Sasuke told her with cold finality. "And tell my former team-mates, I will kill them all if they continue to try to pursue me."

"What about your promise to protect her?" Itachi reminded him near his ear as he poured forth extra spiritual energy so his brother could hear him.

"You know as well as I do, brother, she will be safer with Kakashi than she will be with me." Sasuke reminded him in a low voice as he activated his Sharingan so he could see the thin outline of his brother beside him.

Itachi sighed, as he recognized the truth in his little brother's words. She was not safe here and being around his brother was almost suicidal considering his plans, it was too dangerous for her.

His eyes were purposely hard and cold when he looked into hers and stated firmly. "Hinata, he is right. I want you to go meet with them and try to stall them. Tell Kakashi, I will meet with him later."

Hinata flinched at the look in his eyes and felt tears burn behind her eyes as she understood clearly what it was he was doing to her. _They don't need me anymore; I have no value to them._

"What about my promise to help you?" She asked, her voice was a dazed whisper as she couldn't believe they were doing this to her.

"Sasuke, we have to leave now, they are gaining on us." Karin cut in urgently as she glanced meaningfully toward the edge of the forest and they could see the group from Konoha was only about a mile away. Her eyes as they glanced in Hinata's direction were spiteful.

Hinata looked away from her and stared at the ground.

"I will speak to you later about it," Itachi explained to Hinata as he stood in front of her and blocked her path. Hinata glanced toward Sasuke and saw he was already leaving with the others. With a final glance at her telling her to leave, Itachi turned and followed his brother.

Hinata felt numb inside as she turned away and obeyed him and headed towards her fellow leaf ninjas…

**Author's Note: **I am sorry to leave all of you there but I have to make sure I have it all plotted out properly before I write anymore. I apologize for not posting sooner, but mainly because of the storyline in Naruto lately I have had a hard time figuring out how to mirror it. I have decided to go a bit AU with this story but still keep some events similar to the manga. For example, in this chapter I deliberately cut out the cloud ninjas and made their incident happen earlier to Naruto (him getting beat up). I am starting up again around Chapter 452 in the manga. Some of the dialogue with Sai is from that chapter FYI. Please let me know if you are still interested in this story…

**Anime Alert**: NS Episode 166, Confessions. Hinata was so freakin awesome in this episode and I feel so bad how I treated her in this story. I just want to let you know she is going to get seriously redeemed in this fic...never fear, she will get her chance to shine...I just have to say this is the manga chapter that turned it all around for me. I used to be a huge Naruhina fan but after Naruto dissed her, after she risked her life for him, it was all over for me. I don't want her to end up with Naruto at all, he simply does not deserve her. She is waaay to good for him, I am hoping he will end up with Sakura. And I just love her with either Itachi or Sasuke, personality wise she just fits with them. Anyway, awesome episode, it far exceeded my expectations for once, they made her fight much longer than it shows in the manga. YAY!


	13. Chapter 13

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 13**

* * *

**Author's Note: **I know it has been a while since I updated, (I am so sorry) I finally worked through some things and I will be leaving part of the manga out as it is just too convoluted with the Cloud Village stuff and all of the drama with Sakura liking Naruto, and visa versa and the whole plot with her trying to kill Sasuke (pa-lease…that plot sucked IMO…blah, blah, blah). I am not even going to touch all of that; it will make my head explode. So to summarize briefly in this story, I will tell you Sasuke is aware of Danzo becoming Hokage and that Konoha has been destroyed and that is all. He doesn't know about the Gokage Summit and is on his way towards Konoha…(A lot of the dialogue between Team Taka and Madara comes from manga chapter 453). Another little detail is that only Sasuke and Madara are able to see Itachi and they cannot see and hear him as well as Hinata can, the others do not know he is with Sasuke.

**Special thanks**: To the 33 people who left me reviews on Chapter 12 – you guys are the ones keeping me posting for this story. I do not plan to give up on it and hope to be able to devote more time to it over the next few weeks.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer:]

* * *

"Hey Sasuke," Madara said with a jaunty (Tobi-like) wave as he suddenly appeared before Team Taka, blocking their path as they jumped through the trees.

Stopping suddenly in shock, Sasuke eyed the Atkatsuki leader warily.

_What the hell…his chakra came out of nowhere_, Karin thought uneasily as she came to an abrupt stop behind Sasuke.

"How did you know where I was?" Sasuke asked his former leader with eyes full of mistrust – not being fooled at all by the cheerful greeting Madara had given them.

Behind his orange mask, Madara smirked as he looked at the ghostly form of Itachi as he stood behind his brother, "Don't underestimate me, it is within my power to know a lot of things."

Itachi's eyes narrowed as he understood Madara subtle message that he knew he was present, he glanced protectively toward his brother.

"What do you want with me now?" Sasuke asked in a firm voice heavily laden with disrespect. "Taka is no longer part of Akatsuki; we have no further use for you."

Madara's mask went menacingly still as he stared at Team Taka as if he was prepared to attack them at any moment, "I said I'd have to kill you if you betrayed Akatsuki," Madara reminded them in a deadly calm voice. "…And you broke your promise to me."

Sasuke frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"The Eight-Tailed beast." Madara supplied coolly, confusing the group of rogue ninjas even more.

"But we found the Eight-Tailed beast and brought him to you," Karin blurted out in a perplexed voice before Sasuke could respond.

"It was a fake," Madara explained while shaking his head in disgust at their ineptitude. "In other words – you failed. The Eight-Tails pulled a fast one on you."

Team Taka stared back at him with a collective look of shock and dismay.

Remembering back to his fight with Killer Bee, Sasuke's mind quickly analyzed fight he had in its entirety and in an instant he realized what had happened. There shouldn't have been much time for Killer Bee to split, but somehow he did. It had to have been after he had cut off one of his octopus tentacles.

"So, what do you want us to do about it? It's not our business anymore," Suigetsu complained in a frustrated voice.

"I no longer care about the Eight-Tales anymore, but there is something else I would like you to do," Madara explained elusively.

Behind Sasuke and invisible to everyone without the Sharingan, Itachi watched Madara and his stomach clenched as he wondered what he wanted with his brother. Knowing Madara as he did, he knew it wasn't going to be good.

"You will finish your last job as part of Akatsuki." Madara announced to the group with an obvious threat in his voice.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "And if I say no?"

"Then you will have to fight me, I won't let you pass on to Konoha." Madara replied smugly.

Itachi immediately stepped in front of his brother to simultaneously protect and stop him after he felt Sasuke's chakra begin to flare angrily.

"Sasuke, do not fight him, he is too dangerous," Itachi warned him in a tense voice near his ear.

Reluctantly accepting the wisdom of his brother words, Sasuke forced himself to immediately calm down. Releasing a harsh breath he stared at Madara with rebellious eyes as his fists clenched in and out with tenuous control.

Madara watched Itachi's outline near his brother and noted Sasuke's unusual self control over his temper, he thought for sure Sasuke would have risen to his bait. His lips began to narrow as he saw Itachi was already beginning to exert a calming influence over Sasuke. He realized if he was going to keep Sasuke focused on his hatred for Danzo and the elders he was going to have to intervene quickly…

"Konoha no longer exists and Danzo is the new Hokage," Madara said almost casually as he dangled the information out in front of them like the skillful manipulator he was, to see how much they already knew.

Sasuke glared back at him, his bored eyes clearly told him he was already aware of the information.

Madara smirked as he looked at Itachi, as he stood near his brother. Not surprised at all that he had figured out a way to talk to Sasuke. "And because you and Pain made such a commotion, the Five Kages have begun to move and they will be holding a meeting."

While Madara had been talking, Zetsu suddenly appeared beside him and everyone was shocked that they couldn't sense his presence, especially Karin.

"What are you going to do Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked anxiously after he came up beside Sasuke. "Danzo's your target right? He's gonna be at this meeting…maybe that's where we should head?"

Karin glared at Suigetsu for putting dangerously stupid ideas into Sasuke's head. Going to a summit meeting like this one with all of the kage-level ninjas and security was practically suicidal. She felt like smacking the idiot.

"Wh…what?" Suigetsu looked at her defensively, "Am I wrong?"

"Uhg…" Karin groaned.

Sasuke silenced his team-mates with a look and purposely ignoring his brother's presence, knowing he was not going to like his decision, he stared at Madara and announced, "Our plans have changed…we'll go to that meeting and… kill the Kages."

Madara smirked as he glanced at Itachi through his orange mask and saw the pain flash over his translucent face, "Good."

Karin cringed inwardly knowing this meeting was going to be an enormous pain in the ass, not to mention scary as hell. Some of her trepidation showed as she asked, "So, where is this meeting?"

Madara turned toward his subordinate and ordered sharply, "Zetsu."

"I'll lead you," Zetsu told Sasuke obediently just before he used his body splitting technique splitting the dark and white halves into two. His white half grew additional body mass and after Jumping into the trees he gestured for them to follow him, while his dark half remained next to Madara.

As they followed behind the white half of Zetsu, Jugo caught up with Sasuke and asked in a quiet voice fraught with tension, "Can we trust them?"

Sasuke sighed a little unsure, he glanced at his brother and the faint lines of Itachi's wary expression clearly told him no.

"Let's just see what happens…if he tries anything funny, I will just use Amaterasu on him." Sasuke replied with a stubborn look on his face, completely ignoring his brother's silent but stern recommendation to not have anything to do with Madara or Zetsu.

Itachi's jaw clenched as he thought of how stubbornly, naïve his brother was acting. _Did he really think he would be able to use Amaterasu on Madara?_ He shook his head in frustration as he had no choice but to follow his brother and try to keep him from acting too rashly.

Looking over at Sasuke in concern, Jugo was still uncomfortable with their new plans because infiltrating a kage-level meeting of this caliber sounded like a death-wish because it was so dangerous. However, because he was so loyal to Sasuke he decided to support him no matter what. He owed it to the memory of Kimimaro to stand by Sasuke.

"…Besides, there is something I have been wanting to test out anyway." Sasuke continued to tell him after he made up his mind. Keeping his eyes forward he didn't even bother to look over at his translucent brother. He knew only too well what Itachi would think about his plans.

Madara watched and a sinister smile grew over his face as he watched Team Taka leave with the white Zetsu, he knew he still had a foothold over Sasuke. Itachi's ghost had not been able to reach him completely yet.

"That went well," Dark Zetsu stated with sinister amusement as he looked at his leader.

Madara's eyes grew cloudy as he thought of Pain's betrayal which was causing him to now turn to Sasuke to help him complete his goals. He was still angry that Pain had used his Rinne Tensei to revive the people of Konoha, he was supposed to have used it on him to help restore his strength and vitality.

_What a betrayal, _he mentally complained before his thoughts returned to Sasuke._ What if Sasuke betrays me too? _Now that his brother's ghost was interfering who knows what will happen.

"Even if Sasuke becomes more powerful than Nagato was, he will be no good to us if we cannot control him," Madara mused out loud to his subordinate. "I don't plan to link him with Gedo Mazo for a while…I will just wait and see what happens at the conference."

"So, what are you going to do now…are you going to make a move?" Dark Zetsu asked his leader.

Madara eyes snapped out into the distance as he gripped a hand out in front of him as if he wanted to clutch the whole world in it and crush it.

"I am through being cautious," Madara stated in a maniacally calm voice as he held back a mirthless laugh, "I think it is time I implemented the Moon's Eye Plan."

Beside him Zetsu quailed in fear as he watched his leader lift his face and hands to the sky as if making a promise.

_Oh shit_…

Madara's eyes grew focused as he sensed some newcomers from Konoha were close to the area….

oooOOOooo

Akamaru reached her first and Hinata buried her face in his long white hair as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Hello Akamaru," she told him as she kissed his long white furry neck.

"Woof!"

Looking up she saw the whole group, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Kakashi were about to converge on her as she practically hid behind Akamaru. She had no idea what she was supposed to say to them, yet at the same time she was desperately happy to see all of them.

Her eyes grew soft when she looked at her team-mate's face and saw how worried Kiba had been about her. She was shocked when he hugged her - it was something her team-mates never did. His voice was a little emotional as he complained to her, "Hinata, don't ever leave without telling us again, Shino and I were so worried about you."

"Kiba, leave her alone about that right now, she needs to tell us about Sasuke," Naruto butted in urgently as he came up to them and looked at her with a single-mindedness that was almost obsessive.

Feeling the eyes of everyone, all on her at once, Hinata felt a little faint as she stared at the ground. Today just wasn't her day, first Itachi and Sasuke sent her away – now she was being drilled by her team-mates about Sasuke.

"Hinata, why did you separate yourself from Sasuke's team?" Kakashi asked gently as he came next to her.

She looked around at everyone tentatively, her eyes asking Kakashi if it was alright to speak freely around them.

The silver-haired jonin nodded carefully, "Go ahead Hinata," he told her while keeping an eye on Sai, since he was the only one who he did not fully trust.

"Well, okay…um…Sasuke felt your presence and asked me to detain you. H-he refuses to listen to reason and wants to kill the elders and people of Konoha."

Her Sasuke senses were tingling as Sakura wondered just how close Hinata had gotten to him over the past few days. And completely disregarding what Hinata just told them about Sasuke, she glossed over her words as if they were all nonsense.

"Sasuke would never do such a thing; you must be exaggerating, Hinata,"

"Hey, Hinata doesn't lie." Kiba blurted out becoming defensive at Sakura's subtle accusation of his team-mate.

Kakashi shook his head in frustration as he felt they were wasting valuable time just standing around when they could be looking for Sasuke, "Hinata do you know where he is going now?"

She shook her head, "He didn't tell me his plans, b-but I will try to see if I can find him…" Hinata told him before activating her bloodline-limit, "Byakugan."

"I see him and his team, he isn't headed toward Konoha… it looks like he is headed north-east from here," Hinata relayed to the jonin with a puzzled expression on her face as she wondered where they were going.

An ominous feeling twisted his gut as he realized the direction Sasuke was heading, "He is going to the Gokage Conference."

"Why is he going there?" Naruto asked obtusely before Sakura clotted him on the head.

"He is going to kill Danzo, you idiot."

"But, if he goes there - they will execute him as a criminal!" Naruto pointed out urgently.

"Yes Naruto, they will," Sai stated calmly.

Hinata's chin became stubborn as she stared in the direction Sasuke was headed. Whether Itachi and Sasuke wanted her to help them or not, she had made a promise to help Sasuke turn away from darkness and she was going to keep it.

Taking a determined breath, she took a few steps back toward where she just came from when Kakashi stopped her with his voice, "Wait Hinata, we will all go with you this time."

A grateful breath escaped her as she looked at all them and knew with their help, especially Naruto and Sakura's, maybe Sasuke would come around after seeing how many people cared from him and wanted him back in the village.

It didn't matter if they were successful or not, they had to at least try. She especially, couldn't get the look on Itachi's face out of her mind after he told her that he wasn't able to save his brother. The naked pain she had seen on his face was eating her alive, she just had to try to help him.

Hinata activated her eyes and Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the air and they darted off. They only went about a meter when Hinata saw an Akatsuki member appear in front of them and she signaled for the group to stop.

She gasped when she saw it was the same one from before when they tried to reach Sasuke and Itachi after they had fought at the Uchiha hideout.

"Tobi?" Hinata whispered having a bad feeling form in her stomach, knowing they weren't going to be able to get past him.

"No, it is Madara Uchiha," the Akatsuki member supplied casually as if he was just meeting them while out on a stroll.

"You again!" Naruto raged in frustration as his blue eyes began to turn orange. He began to form a Rasengan in his hand.

"You know that won't work on me, Uzumaki Naruto" Madara reminded him pleasantly and Kakashi stopped his former student before he could rashly move forward.

"We won't let you have Naruto, if that is what you are after." Kakashi told him as he stepped protectively in front of his student.

"I am not interested in capturing him right now… I am just here to talk," Madara explained patiently as everyone around him eyed him warily.

Kakashi looked skeptical, "Talk?" he scoffed.

"Yes, talk." Madara repeated before looking over at Naruto, "You are a curious fellow…tell me, how did you make Nagato betray me?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Naruto exploded loudly, "What are you going to do to Sasuke?"

Madara looked thoughtful as he looked at the ninjas in front of him knowing he had a captive audience, "Sasuke eh?" He mused, "Alright…I'll tell you about a man eaten up by the ninja world's hatred and bitterness…I will tell you about Uchiha Sasuke…but before I do that, I must first begin with his brother…Uchiha Itachi…"

* * *

**Author's Note:** First off, I used dialogue from Manga Ch. 462, 453 and possibly other chapters, I just cannot remember right now. I jumped this scene out of order because I wanted to simplify things a bit. I hope it makes sense… Kakashi and Hinata know a little bit about Itachi, but they don't know everything, so I think they, along with everyone else, are about to be enlightened...Please leave me some feedback so I know you are still reading...thanks.


	14. Chapter 14

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 14**

**

* * *

****AN:** The first part of this chapter is from Ch. 455, as you can see I am still loosely following it, but I left out Naruto getting the crap beat out of him by the Cloud ninjas. I am hoping it still makes sense, if it doesn't just PM me…

* * *

[**On the road to the Kage Summit…** ]

Needing a respite on the way to the Kage Summit in the Land of Iron, Danzo entered a small shelter and sat down on a long bench. A few moments later three Root members entered the shelter and kneeled reverently before him.

"Hokage-sama," the Root members spoke in unison.

The old man eyed his subordinates with great interest before he questioned them. "Any word on Anko?"

The leader of the three looked up while the other two maintained their positions with lowered faces just above the floor.

"We've got Dajimo Tera trailing Anko…do you wish to have her assassinated?"

Danzo stared off into the distance as he considered the risks involved in taking such a course of action before deciding against it. With the vote of the Jonins coming up soon he couldn't risk any mistakes.

"Now isn't the right time…I need to keep a low profile right now."

"Hai, Danzo-sama."

"Put more people on it – we have to find Kabuto before Anko does." Danzo ordered them with a touch of urgency in his authoritative voice.

Danzo sighed with a frustrated shake of his head as he worried about Kabuto, _he might know about me and Orochimaru…_

"Kabuto has the data on Orochimaru's experiments…we have to get our hands on it before Anko does. It is critical to keep the information secret and it will also be useful for my right eye and arm." Danzo said, using a tone of voice that conveyed the gravity of the situation.

"Fu and Torune, you stay here," Danzo said before turning to the leader of the group. "Terai, I'll leave Kabuto in your hands…now go."

"Yes sir." Terai said before dissipating from the shelter.

The two remaining Root members lifted their faces off of the floor as they awaited their orders.

They didn't have to wait very long as the leader of Root soon enlightened them.

"Each of us leaders is allowed two bodyguards, no exceptions. Since you two are the best I have in Root, I have chosen you. Masks are not allowed, remove them now."

Without hesitation they complied with Danzo's wishes.

"Torune, set some of your men to keep an eye on Naruto. I don't think Sai will betray Root, but just in case…"

"Yes sir."

"And make sure the Nine-Tail beast is unable to leave the village." Danzo ordered as he looked at the other Root member.

Inwardly Fu cringed when he heard the order; he knew his boss was not going to like the news he had to share.

"Um, Danzo-sama, I was given a report a few moments ago…the Nine-Tails was reported leaving through the back gate about an hour ago. He was with spotted leaving the village with Hatake Kakashi and a few others. Sai was reported to be a member of their group." Fu reported nervously before lowering his head to the ground in fear.

Clenching his hand hard around his walking stick, Danzo sought to contain his rage at the news. _That meddler, Kakashi…grr. _

After breathing out harshly he gave the order, "Notify the other members in Root, they are to locate Naruto and his companions at once. After you find him and the other traitors they are to be locked up and interrogated until I return to the village."

"Hai, Danzo-sama." Fu and Torune replied before dissipating to relay the orders they were given.

Standing up tiredly and feeling every bit of his seventy two years, Danzo stepped out of the shelter and slowly resumed his journey. In a few short moments his escorts rejoined him after sending out the messages to the other Root members…

oooOOOooo

_Man, this guy can talk a lot,_ Kiba complained mentally as he was almost literally chomping at the bit to get past the weird Akatsuki member.

With an impatient growl he tried to rush forward but Hinata stopped him by putting her arm out in front of him whispering urgently, "Please Kiba, let him finish."

"Uhg," Kiba groaned as being patient was not his strong point. "Fine," he whispered back to her sharply and was surprised when he saw she was wiping away tears from her eyes. He shook his head at what a softy she was. Even though he didn't consider either of the Uchiha brothers worth crying over he placed his hand around hers in an effort to comfort her.

Hinata sniffed back another wave of tears as she was touched by his concern for her. It was unusual for her impatient and wild team-mate to be so demonstrative. Glancing out of the side of her eyes, Hinata saw Sakura was also wiping away tears, as was Naruto. Sai was busy writing down information in a scroll.

Kakashi was listening to Madara while he read over Sai's shoulder what he was writing, making sure he wasn't reporting anything that would give away their location or intentions to Danzo.

"You're lying, it can't be true!" Naruto shouted out emotionally after hearing the tale.

Under his mask, Madara grinned. He was clearly enjoying every minute of sharing his morbid tale in front of his captive audience.

"Quit fooling around Madara, I don't believe you either." Kakashi told him skeptically.

"Oh, I am not lying," the Akatsuki leader protested calmly before sharing the rest with the aplomb of a man who loves the limelight. "That's the truth about Itachi…he died for Sasuke and for Konoha."

At that bombshell, Hinata's heart began to break for her friend. _Oh Itachi, I never knew…I knew you loved your brother but…I never realized just how much…._

His sacrifice stunned her and it made her sick that everyone in Konoha and the ninja world still considered him to be a criminal.

Fresh tears began to slip down her face as she looked around to see if he was nearby. She just wanted to see him and offer her help to do anything to save his brother. But mainly she just wanted to see him…so that he would know she knew the whole truth about him.

Beside her Kiba grimaced as Hinata gripped his hand really hard. He was about to complain when she let go and wrapped her arms around Akamaru's neck and hid her face in his fur.

Kakashi looked at Madara like he had been fed a bunch of bullshit because something with Sasuke clearly did not add up to him. "What do you mean…if your story is true and Sasuke knows it, then why would he work with Akatsuki?"

"He would follow Itachi's wishes and return to Konoha," Sasuke's sensei added with conviction and Naruto and Sakura agreed with him.

At Kakashi's question Hinata looked up and wiped her eyes and looked sadly at him and Naruto and knew that Sasuke had no desire to return to Konoha, in fact she knew the only reason he wanted to come back home was to destroy it.

"Heh, as Sasuke's friends and sensei, you think you know him, but you don't understand him at all." Madara proclaimed mildly before setting them straight. "You've got it all wrong. He's the real deal…"

Madara looked almost gleeful as he addressed the whole group, "He is a true avenger."

Kakashi turned to Hinata who nodded sadly confirming Madara's words as the truth. Sasuke's sensei felt pain rip through his gut at one of students (if he was honest with himself, he would have to admit, his prized student) becoming such a hate-filled person. He turned away from Hinata and put a careful eye on Madara to see what he would do next.

"Did you do that to him?" Naruto accused the Uchiha founder.

Madara shook his head sadly in a false manner, "No…I didn't."

Naruto glared at him, not believing him.

Beside him Sakura was also skeptical, "I don't believe you," she accused emotionally with hot tears running down her face. Her mind kept recycling over and over, _Sasuke would never do anything like that on his own; someone had to be making him act this way._

"He chose it himself," Madara explained with a shrug. "I took a gamble not knowing whether he would follow Itachi's wishes or choose revenge against Konoha."

"Liar," Sakura and Naruto spat out unconvinced he was telling the truth.

Madara ignored them and plunged relentlessly on with his story knowing it was twisting the guts of Sasuke's team-mates, "He chose revenge against Konoha, which proves in his heart he is one of us and not like the rest of you."

Continuing with his story, Madara added the last part with obvious confidence that he was right, like he usually was. "Right now, Sasuke's goal is vengeance against Konoha for what they did to his clan and Itachi."

"Why?" Naruto looked up at the Akatsuki member with troubled eyes, desperate to find an answer so he could help his friend. "Why would Sasuke choose such a thing?"

"He was fated to; it is the Uchiha Clan destiny to fight against the Senju Clan, which is essentially Konoha." Madara explained in a hard voice. "It is a hate-filled curse that has followed the Uchiha Clan for generations."

"It's because you started it," Kakashi muttered under his breath as he knew his Konoha history better than most.

Madara shot him an irritated glare, before continuing on with his history lesson on (yawn) the Rukido Sage of the six paths and his sons... (AN: Manga ch 462 pages 11-14 if you want to look it up and read it, I am not going into all of that now…sorry)

"Revenge is the destiny of the Uchiha clan and Sasuke has taken on the hatred of the entire clan, he will inflict that curse's hatred on the whole world…that is his dogma."

"That's bullshit!" Naruto spluttered out angrily. "I am gonna knock some sense into the Teme for believing that crap."

"Yeah, you go Naruto," Sakura rallied beginning to feel her spirits lifted by her team-mate. If anyone could stop Sasuke, it was Naruto, she always believed it.

Madara rolled his eyes under his mask at Naruto's naivety. _Is this how he turned Nagato around?_

"Naruto, someday you will have to fight Sasuke…or rather, I will make you fight him." Madara told him in a voice that was implacable and a little amused as if their lives were one big private joke to him. "I will use Sasuke so that people will acknowledge the Uchiha Clan."

Outraged at Madara's obvious control over his friend, Naruto exploded, "Sasuke isn't your toy, you bastard."

Madara smirked, "Sasuke will not be as easily influenced by you as Nagato was."

"Nagato may have been going about it in the wrong way but he was a man of peace, unlike you." Naruto shot back.

"What the hell do you really want, Madara?" Kakashi interrupted wanting to put an end to this farce and find Sasuke. He wanted Madara's poisonous presence away from all of them, especially Naruto. He just didn't trust him to keep his word not to go after Naruto.

"Well, if you must know… it is to become complete." He explained vaguely and looked out at the group of confused faces in front of him and decided he didn't feel like telling them his plans.

He sighed, "There no use telling all of you…there are more effective places for this conversation."

"Wait!" Naruto shouted when he saw Madara was beginning to leave this dimension and go wherever it is he goes to when he disapears…

"It has been fun chatting with you and I have delayed you long enough…see ya." The Akatsuki leader said before disappearing with a wave of his hand.

"Damn it!" Naruto swore because he wanted to get more information from him.

"Naruto, while he did give us some important information about why Sasuke is acting the way he is, he did delay us and now Sasuke is far ahead of us." Kakashi told him trying to calm him down and get him refocused on what was important.

"Well, I want to go see the Raikage." Naruto told him stubbornly.

"What will you do when you see him?" His sensei asked him in a very rational voice as he wondered just what in the hell Naruto was up to now.

"I'm gonna convince him to forgive Sasuke." Naruto explained desperately.

Kakashi and Sakura looked at him and wondered if he was beginning to get a big head and thinking he was some super negotiator or something.

"Naruto, that's a stupid idea." His team-mate told him honestly not holding back her opinion at all.

All around him people began to argue before Naruto yelled out, "I met the Fourth and he told me that Madara is the one who let loose the Nine-Tails all those years ago and now he is controlling Sasuke too...I have to try and save him from being killed as an outlaw." Naruto pleaded.

"Fine, I will go with you Naruto to see the Raikage." Kakashi told him, finally convinced that Naruto was not going to give up. As always, it fell to him to keep his former student from doing something really stupid.

"I will go with you too," Sai told him with a fake smile.

_Ya, that's a shock Sai_, Kakashi thought sarcastically knowing of course Sai would go wherever Naruto was going so he could report his movements to Danzo.

"Well, I am not going with you," Sakura stated firmly and looked over and saw Hinata was already edging away from everyone and trying to slip out on her own to find Sasuke and Itachi. "I am going to find Sasuke and try to talk some sense into him. I know deep down there is good in him."

"S-same here," Hinata added, knowing that if she had to go alone she would. But one way or another she was going to help Itachi save Sasuke so if Sakura wanted to tag along that would be fine too.

"No way, Hinata!" Kiba said as he stepped in front of her as Akamaru stood beside him backing him up. "I don't care what that bastard does with his life, I am sure as hell not going to let you sacrifice your life for his. He is not worth it."

"Kiba-kun, I have made up my mind…don't try to stop me." She told him with a firm look on her face before glancing over at Kakashi with a meaningful look asking him to help her.

"Kiba, let her go, she has a promise to fulfill." The silver-haired jonin explained patiently with a hint of steel in his voice.

_Hmm…what promise?_ Sakura thought as she began to look at Hinata closely wondering why she cared so much about what was happened to Sasuke. It wasn't like she knew him as well as she did after all. Her eyes grew narrow as she decided to cling to the Hyuuga like a barnacle on the hull of a ship.

_Sasuke is mine, Hinata and don't you forget it._

"Fine Hinata, Akamaru and I will go with you…but you better not have done something stupid and fall in love with that bastard…" Kiba complained before she interrupted him with a blush.

"It is not like that…he is only a friend (_I think_)…I-I m-made a promise to someone e-else," she stammered out before refusing to name the person who she made the promise to. For some reason she didn't want everyone to know about Itachi, part of her liked that she was the one who could see him best. Besides, explaining about her ghostly friend to everyone would take time and… they were all in a hurry.

"Okay, let's go." Sakura said as she took Hinata's hand and began pulling her along. Kiba and Akamaru began to reluctantly follow behind them.

"We will meet up with you near the summit." Kakashi told them as they all began to leave. Using his summoning jutsu he sent Pakkun and the other dogs to locate the Raikage. In a matter of moments he returned with his location.

While they were leaving, Kakashi asked Naruto in a knowing way, "So what did the Fourth say to you?"

Naruto grinned as they set off to find the Raikage, "He said has faith in me."

Under his mask, Kakashi grinned as he thought about his recent conversation with his own dad, "Great."

Behind them Sai waited until they got a few lengths ahead of him and released his message to Danzo, before catching up with his team-mates.

oooOOOooo

**[Multiple assassins attack Danzo…**(**AN:** 17 actually lol – Kishimoto wanted to show just how badass Grandpa Danzo was IMO)…]

"Fu and Torune, don't make a move, I'll take care of them." Danzo told his escorts confidently as he calmly lifted the bandage from around his eye, revealing his Sharingan.

Swooping down all around them from the air were ninjas with masks on and some had horns sticking out of their masks.

Almost casually, Danzo began to make hand-signs with the speed of a man a quarter of his age and then placed his hands around his mouth as he began inhale air. Spinning around rapidly as the ninjas came closer, Danzo exhaled, releasing a large blade of wind covering an angle of 180 degrees all around him. (Wind Release: Vacuum Wave… Manga Ch. 456)

In a matter of seconds the unsuspecting assassins were predictably mowed down by the wind blade as their blood splayed all over the ground none of it touching the old man in the center.

Fu looked around at the carnage around them and was amazed at the skill the old man still possessed. He and his partner were near Danzo when the assassins attacked yet his wind blade jutsu had avoided them.

"These are the remnants of the assassins from the Land of Wood," he noted to his partner for confirmation.

"Hai, they have been waiting for an opportunity like this…Danzo-sama coming out in the open is going to be a pain." Torune from the Aburame Clan muttered to himself and the bugs contained under his black leather outfit.

"Controlling both the public world and the shadows will strengthen the village and the country," Danzo reminded his subordinates dourly, while wiping the dust off of his hands in an impatient manner. He began to walk toward the path knowing they would follow him. "I will make sure this conference goes well and they accept me as Hokage, then the Jonins will have no choice but to accept me…it appears my time has finally come."

They walked along the road for a while before a beautifully drawn bird hovered over their heads.

"It looks like a message from Sai," Torune stated the obvious as it turned into a scroll and dropped into Danzo's hands.

The Hokage candidate read it for a few moments before a small smirk came over his face.

Curious and obviously very different from the rest of his clan, Torune was unable to stop himself from asking, "What's it say?"

Danzo gave him a repressive look, "It is just an update…let's go."

**Author's Note:** Okay, sorry, this chapter was a ground-work one to set up the beginning of the Kage Summit (conference), future plots, etc. To summarize, Hinata, Kiba and Sakura will be going after Sasuke and Team Taka, while Naruto, Kakashi and Sai will try to intercept the Raikage so Naruto can apologize to him… (I will see if I can actually bring myself to write about such an event...)

Anyway, some of you may have noticed I left out Yamato. Yes, I left him back at the village working on the reconstruction projects to rebuild Konoha. I feel like my blockage is gone on this story and I have figured out a few key plots. I still have not decided who I am ultimately going to pair up Hinata with…I am waiting to see what Kishimoto does down the road before I make a decision.

Next up, Sasuke and Itachi outside of the conference…ooh, I cannot wait for this part. Trust me when I say there will be some changes from the manga…count on it!

Thank you for all of the reviews and I am so glad so many of you haven't given up on me. (I neglected this story for sooo long…I am sorry)

Anyhoo, I felt like listless crap this weekend and could not write at all, but after reading through the manga (Ch 455 – 462) it all began to make sense to me. Plus all of your encouragement pushed me to get writing for this story. You guys are so awesome! I will try to post the next chapter within a week…instead of months. I can't wait to hear from all of you…

Before I go, I read the funniest fic ever (it is up there with Coincident's R D fic on the LMAO scale IMO) written by Firefly, called Piano Man and Church Boy link: .net/s/3276016/1/Piano_Man_and_Church_Boy It has Hidan and Itachi going on a mission as a team (no pairings). Thanks Sil, for sharing it with me. I also have it saved in my favorites if the link doesn't work. Happy reading! UPDATE: 7/30/10, I am almost done with chapter 15, I will try to post it by Thursday...


	15. Chapter 15

**Itachi's Ghost**

**~Chapter 15~**

* * *

**Author's Note: **Because chapter 14 was sort of a filler and I was using it to set the scene, plot out future events, etc., I decided to post this chapter ASAP. DeeChameleon this chapter is for you for your honesty – it was so awesome and really motivated me to do better.

Lady Crack, Softwinds, Chosenmibhar, polarpop16, RedVintage07, Kittychan, DarkMoonMaiden, Yin-Yan-Yum-Yum, Kira Acumichi, May165, Chef Colette, BlackWerewolf OfPurpleRoses, Katsekala, Sepsis, SilverLunaMoon - thanks so much for your reviews, you guys have no idea how much I appreciated all of them.

* * *

Feeling massive amounts of chakra ahead of them, Karin choked back fear and trepidation as she wished this was one of those times she could be logical and just walk away and leave Sasuke.

Staring off into the distance she remembered before she met him, she used to consider herself to be very organized, detail-oriented and ruthlessly hard-hearted. Her cold-blooded ability to divorce her mind from her emotions and ethics had impressed Orochimaru-sama so much that he had put her in charge of some of the most dangerously unstable scientific freaks he had in his organization.

_What the hell has happened to me? I used to be such a bad-ass, now I am just…so lame, pathetic really._

A sad smile formed over her face as she stared at his backside and knew when it came to him (sigh), she was a complete head-case and practically delusional. He was her grand obsession and she could no more leave him then fly to the moon. No matter how dangerous the mission was or insane the risk, if he still wanted her to follow him, then that is what she would do.

_Oh, but this is so stupid and suicidal_, the part of her mind that was controlled by logic rebelled. _I know it is, …but if I leave him, he will find someone else; maybe that weak-ass Hyuuga girl will come back with her Byakugan and take my place…_her emotional side of her brain countered and completely obliterated her mind's logical reasoning to bits.

Because she would rather die first then allow another girl to take her place with Sasuke and on Team Taka.

As she travelled behind him, she stared at his artfully messy jet-black hair and admired the graceful yet powerful movements of his body as he jumped effortlessly from tree to tree. Karin blushed and hoped if she stuck it out long enough with him he would one day recognize her unique qualities and value to him and all of her dreams would come true. And if he didn't actually marry her then she would put plan B into action and drug his food and have her way with him while he was passed out. Either scenario would be acceptable to her just as long as she got to live out her fantasies with him and his amazing body at least once in her life. Experiencing Sasuke in every way had become her nindo and she was willing to risk her life to reach her goal.

"Stop watching his butt," Suigetsu whispered to her snidely as he moved closer to her. "You know he doesn't like it when you do that."

Blushing brighter than her hair, Karin's hand balled up into a tight fist, "I was staring at a fly that landed on his back," she lied before turning hotly accusing eyes on him. "Damn you and your big mouth…why did you have to mention the Kage Summit to Sasuke? We could have waited until Danzo left the conference and ambushed him on the way back to Konoha…but no-oo, your stupid-ass had to put this suicidal plan into his head."

Suigetsu smirked knowingly with a hint of worry showing in his eyes as he responded, "Sasuke was going to end up going there anyway; we all know _who_ is really calling the shots in Taka."

Karin sighed and lifted her troubled eyes back onto Sasuke, "I know…I don't trust that bastard at all," she spoke in a low and anxious voice. "I just wish I knew what Madara's plans for Sasuke were - they can't be good."

For once Suigetsu wasn't joking but was completely serious as he agreed with his team-mate, "I know…I wish I knew too."

"It will be up to us to look out for him and protect him from Madara…and himself." Jugo added quietly as he moved closer to them as he had obviously been listening in on their conversation.

In the front of the loose formation, Sasuke stopped and turned around and glared at his team-mates for a few tense moments with cold and purposeful eyes, "Madara is not calling the shots around here – I am."

Next to him Itachi gave him a skeptical glance, unseen by Sasuke's team-mates and mocked him, "Really? You just keep believing that, _little brother_."

"Shut up Itachi, you are free to leave anytime," Sasuke complained out of the side of his mouth before turning back to the front and continuing on with his journey, completely missing the stunned looks on the faces of his team-mates.

Suigetsu smirked and twirled his finger near his ear doing the crazy sign behind Sasuke's back, "Oh shit, it's finally happened…he's finally lost his freaking mind."

Closing her open jaw shut, for once Karin didn't defend Sasuke, but continued to stare at him with increasingly concerned eyes. _This is not good_, her mind churned out direly, they were headed into battle and Sasuke was talking to his dead brother like he was still alive.

_Oh crap…this is not good at all_…

Turning her head and after sharing a 'we are so screwed' look with Jugo, Karin swallowed the huge lump in her throat and set off resolutely after Sasuke.

Itachi watched his brother sulk away ahead of everyone and catch up to Zetsu and decided to go check on Hinata and see how she was doing.

Sasuke's annoying team-mates were getting on his nerves and he could only tolerate being around them just so long. Although he wanted to stay and keep an eye on Zetsu, he decided a short break away from all of them wouldn't hurt anything. They still had quite a long distance to go before they entered the land of Iron where the conference was being held. And the way he travelled he could be back with them in a matter of seconds, it only required a thought.

An irritated light flashed over his eyes as he glanced at Sasuke's team-mates while they talked and realized he had never met more spiritually insensitive and blind people in his life, except for maybe his brother's previous team-mates. His current team-mates were so deaf and dumb to his presence, he had been around them all day and not once did he feel them even look in his direction. The only thing he liked about them was that they cared about his brother, even if they were a bit obsessive about it.

With a sigh, he passed right through them as he left and knew there was no way they wouldn't feel it. His ghostly form was frigidly cold as death.

Feeling an unnatural chill pass over them, Suigetsu and Jugo stared at each other with wide open eyes.

"D-did you f-feel that?" Suigetsu asked the big guy next to him with slightly chattering teeth.

The hair on Jugo's neck stood up as he looked around nervously, "Y-yes."

"Do you think (gulp) Sasuke's brother really is with us?"

Jugo gave him a baffled look, he had no explanation for what just happened. He didn't know if ghosts were real but he sort of wished they were, because then he would get to see his friend Kimimaru again and maybe hang out with him a little. Then he wouldn't be so lonely all the time.

He looked away sadly, "I don't believe in ghosts…do you?"

Suigestsu shrugged, "Not really, I would hate it if Orochimaru came back as a ghost. Could you imagine his snake-ass following us around?"

Jugo shuddered at the horrific thought as he remembered all of the torturous experiments the dead Sanin had put him through, "I would hate that - but I _would_ like to see my old friend Kimimaru again. I wouldn't mind it if _he_ was a ghost."

"Hey, with this suicidal mission Sasuke's dragging us on - you might just get to join him in the afterlife," Suigetsu joked darkly before they started after Sasuke and Karin.

Almost in companionable silence the two team-mates hurried after their troubled leader and bitchy team-mate. In the distance they could see creepy White Zetsu was leading them ever closer to their doom.

Jugo couldn't help but think his watery team-mate was right about this mission and he might just get to join Kimimaru on the other side after all.

oooOOOooo

"So Hinata…just how did you end up meeting up with Sasuke and his team-mates?" Sakura asked casually as they travelled together toward the summit. Kiba and Akamaru followed behind them a few lengths back, continually sniffing the air for Sasuke's scent.

Momentarily caught off-guard by the pink-haired ninja's question, Hinata deactivated her eyes for a moment and stared out in the distance stalling for time as she thought of how best to answer her. Even though Sakura's question was asked innocently enough, she could read the jealousy behind it and didn't want any part of it. A shudder passed through her as she thought of her recent skirmish with Karin and the fuchsia-haired ninja's obsession with Sasuke had been more than enough excitement for her tastes. Something told Hinata that Sakura would be ten-times worse to deal with.

More importantly, she did not want to have to explain to Sakura about her relationship with Itachi and how Danzo had been hunting her down to interrogate her. _Uhg_…she mentally groaned as her whole involvement with the brothers was so complicated that even she didn't understand all of it.

"Um…I…" She began nervously.

Sakura began to smile as she thought of something she had forgotten, "Was it because of Naruto? I bet you tried to warn Sasuke because of him, huh?"

A relieved breath escaped Hinata when she saw Sakura was giving her the perfect excuse. This way she wouldn't have to tell anyone about Itachi…Sasuke, Root or anything…_phew_.

Hinata gave her a weak ambivalent smile and shrugged her shoulders as she looked at Naruto's bossy team-mate with carefully blank eyes.

Sakura began to relax as she realized she had been wrong earlier thinking that Hinata liked Sasuke. It was obvious she still had feelings for Naruto.

_I am so glad she still likes the knucklehead, _Sakura thought feeling her suspicions about Hinata begin to dissipate. Glancing over at Hinata's sweet and timid face, she almost laughed at how stupid her jealousy had been.

_The poor girl just isn't up to dealing with Sasuke, one glare from him and she would probably wither right in front of him. He would intimidate the hell out of her._

Sakura smiled and felt much better about the situation, now if they could just hurry up and find Sasuke already…

Activating her Byakugan and after scanning all around them, Hinata felt bad about dissembling, especially when she knew she no longer liked Naruto in that way. In fact, it seemed like forever had passed since he had been the center of her universe. In some ways it felt like her previous feelings for Naruto had been a lifetime ago.

A lot had happened over the last few days…

A frown came over her face at the realization that somehow the Uchiha brothers had consumed almost all of her waking thoughts since Itachi had come into her life and asked for her help. Naruto used to be her ideal ninja but after what she had learned about Itachi and his sacrifice to save Konoha and his brother, she realized he understood what it meant to be a ninja more than anyone she had ever met.

Because he had given up everything for peace in the ninja world and had cut off all of his emotions in order to execute that horrific order. Not only that, he had been living amongst those criminals in Akatsuki for years while he spied on them from the inside. She could only imagine the horrors he had witnessed over the years and the people he has had to kill…

_No wonder he had wanted to die to escape such a life…oh Itachi._

The pity she had felt for him when he had told her that death was freeing for him intensified and she breathed out a ragged breath to calm herself.

Interrupting her thoughts, Kiba came up to her and complained, "Don't tell me you still like that blonde idiot, I was hoping you would have out-grown him by now."

Hiding her churning emotions, Hinata just turned shyly away from him and glancing to the left of her she saw Itachi appear several lengths away from her, a radiant smile formed on her face as she looked at him. She had been wanting to see him all day.

Beside her, Kiba felt his breath catch at how beautiful she looked when she smiled like that and thought it was too bad it was probably because she was thinking about that dumb-ass Naruto.

"Um, I need to take a quick break," Hinata told Kiba and Sakura as she watched Itachi head over behind one of the trees off to the side.

"Make it quick Hinata or I'm leaving without you," Sakura warned her as she stopped and took a drink out of her canteen.

"Um, okay…I will just be a minute," Hinata told her as she began to run toward the tree.

Just before she reached him she slowed down almost hesitantly, after thinking about him all day and learning all of those tragic things in his life she wasn't sure what to say to him. Instead she just ran and launched herself toward him and passed straight through him.

Almost sheepishly she smiled to herself as she picked herself off of the ground. "I'm sorry; I forgot…I was just so glad to see you."

Touched by her obvious desire to see him, Itachi needed a few seconds to compose himself before responding to her. "I am glad you are alright, I was concerned about you. After you left, Madara stopped us on the way to Konoha."

Hinata's eyes flew toward his before telling him, "Yes we saw him too, he delayed us so we wouldn't be able to catch up to Sasuke and the others."

Itachi frowned, not liking the idea of Madara knowing anything about Hinata and her connection to him and Sasuke. "Did he say anything to you?"

Hinata shook her head reassuring him that Madara did not take any special notice on her. "He mostly spoke to Naruto and Kakashi and he told us…all about your life."

Itachi's jaw clenched as he saw the look of pity on her face and how she was near tears. Damn that Madara and his big mouth, he did not want people to know about it.

"I…I think what you did for Sasuke was…so…so…" Hinata began as tears began to flood down her face.

"Hinata, we can talk about that later," Itachi said firmly cutting off her emotional outpouring. "I need to get back to Sasuke; I just wanted to make sure you were safe."

She nodded, wiped her tears and shot a glance over at Kiba, Akamaru and Sakura who appeared to be getting restless as they waited for her, "I am fine."

Itachi looked at her and knew by the direction they were headed, she was travelling towards the conference and was planning to help Sasuke there and he regretted that he ever asked for her help. His brother's self-centered quest for vengeance was putting her life and others at risk.

In the beginning he had hoped that if he could just talk to Sasuke he would be able to turn him around. But, he had underestimated the level of hatred his brother felt towards Konoha and the elders and the amount of control Madara had over him.

His eyes drifted softly over her face feeling torn between a desire to protect her and keep her out of everything and the knowledge that his brother was developing feelings for her. While they were all travelling together he had watched Sasuke around her and knew he wasn't indifferent to her, his eyes were on her constantly and he seemed to relax a little more when Hinata was around him.

Itachi knew the moment Sasuke asked her to detain the ninjas from Konoha he was pushing her away from him and it gave him a spark of hope. Some stray thread of compassion within his brother wanted her far away from him as he continued to head toward his doom taking everyone around him with him – everyone except for her.

"Itachi, why did you send me away earlier?" Hinata asked him and tried to keep the hurt from showing in her eyes.

"Hinata, Sasuke and I wanted to keep you safe; he is heading down a dangerous path, one that I do not want you to follow."

Hinata shook her head disagreeing with him and took a step closer to him, "I made a promise…" she began to remind him.

"I release you from it," Itachi stated flatly.

Hinata folded her arms and held her ground, "I promised myself I would see this through," she said in a soft but firm voice as her eyes stared up into his.

Itachi recognized that look on her face; she had made up her mind. It was the same look she had on her face before she faced Pain while trying to protect Naruto. There was no point in even arguing with her he concluded wearily as he closed his eyes and turned his back on her, preparing himself to leave her alone to do what she felt she needed to do.

"I also want to do it… for you."

The longing and admiration in her sweet voice stopped him in his tracks. He turned around slowly toward her and his eyes held hers in a long seeking glance.

Hinata broke the glance first and looked at the ground as a warm blush spread over her cheeks. "After all you have been through, I really want to help you…" she told him simply and hoped he didn't hear what she was leaving out.

Itachi's body was still as he watched her intently and hoped he wasn't reading more into her words than mere friendship. He was dead; a closer relationship between them just wasn't possible. It seemed that both of them sometimes forgot that fact.

"Hinata, I am dead," He tried to remind her…

"Hinata! Are you done yet?" Kiba's loud voice interrupted him as he yelled at Hinata from the clearing.

Itachi shot an impatient glance at Sakura and Kiba and realized now was not the time for such a conversation, if there ever was such a time.

His eyes were urgent as he looked at her. "We will talk later, just stay out of the fighting and stay away from Madara," he warned her.

Hinata nodded, "I will be careful, I promise."

Itachi sighed, not liking that she was going to get involved with his brother's deadly plans, he gave her a sad look before he faded away.

Hinata turned around was startled when Sakura appeared in her face, "Who were you talking to, Hinata?"

"N-no one, I was talking to myself," she responded warily before stepping away from her.

Sakura frowned and looked around the area and didn't see anyone, "Do you do that often?" She asked her in the kind of voice that someone uses when they think you are a little weird.

"Um, sometimes…it helps me to calm my nerves," she told Naruto's team-mate and realized uncomfortably dissembling and telling lies was getting easier for her all the time. Her eyes glanced over at Kiba and saw he was staring at her, his eyes were telling her he didn't believe her.

"Uhg, this is stupid, we are wasting time!" Sakura shouted as she began to move out.

Hinata gratefully began to follow her along with Kiba and before activating her Byakugan she sent an apologetic glance to her team-mate and Akamaru, "I will talk to you later…" she promised them.

"Fine," Kiba growled as he shared a concerned look with Akamaru. Hinata was clearly hiding something from them…

**Author's Note: **Yay, two chapters for this story in one week. I hope you guys like this chapter better than the last one. The next few chapters will be at the conference and we will all see how Itachi's ghostly presence makes a difference in the Narutoverse. I have a feeling this story is going to be at least 25 chapters long. I have it plotted out, so knowing me it will probably end up being more like 30 chapters by the time I finally finish it.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

**AN: **Just so you know, I am still alive and still trying to write, there will be more to come in the next few days…

_He is up ahead, I can see him_, Hinata thought to herself with relief as she moved even further ahead of the group from Konoha. While she had been traveling with the others she maneuvered to get Kakashi alone and shared with him how she had just seen Itachi a short while ago. She explained to him what Itachi had said about how Sasuke, in an act of kindness had let her leave the group, thereby proving that there was still good in him and she felt there might be a chance she could reach him.

In the end, the silver-haired Jonin had relented and had given her permission to try to see Sasuke one more time. After all, they were getting closer to the conference and were running out of options and this might be their best chance to try to reach him. He knew sending her out like this was risky, but decided to trust his gut that no matter what happened, Sasuke would not harm her.

So, during the last break, Kakashi had given her the signal for her to leave and she slipped away and began to speed away as if the hounds of hell were after her. Soon she had put miles between her and her Konoha team-mates.

In the distance she heard Kiba call out her name, but Hinata only began to move faster and apply even more chakra to her feet. _I'm sorry Kiba_, _this is something I need to do,_ she thought as her eyes became even more determined.

"Hinata!" Kiba yelled and signaled to Akamaru to follow along with him, but was stopped by Kakashi who had stepped in front of him.

"Wait Kiba," he said in a low voice as he did not want to alert the others. "Hinata has something she needs to do and will return soon."

"But Kakashi-sensei…" Kiba began with eyes flashing with worry and a low growl from Akamaru. "She is my team-mate and is all alone."

Kakashi's eyes were steady, but firm. "She will be fine," he said and he looked at the others who were also staring out in the distance. "We will be forming up into teams of two, but when we get closer to the conference; do not try to enter it. I will give you more instructions after we get there."

Sakura gazed out ahead of her and her eyes darkened suspiciously as she wondered where Hinata was and why Kakashi-sensei was covering for her…

* * *

Only a few miles away from his destination, the Kage Summit and his prey, Danzo, Sasuke began to look around for his brother and was glad when he didn't see him anywhere near him. He didn't want his disapproving presence around while he took care what needed to be done.

On Sasuke's left side, in formation, Karin's eyes flashed in irritation as she sensed a familiar chakra closing in on them and some others in the distance.

"What is she doing here," she complained irritably while turning toward the source of the chakra.

"What, are you jealous?" Suigetsu teased her before backing away as her fist flew out towards him.

Sasuke's shoulders went rigid as he stopped in his tracks. "Take a break, I will be right back," he ordered before taking off in the forest behind him. He didn't know what she was up to, but he was going to stop her from interfering with him.

Zetsu's eyes followed him as he watched with interest as the dark-haired ninja left…

* * *

The wind flew through her hair as she followed Sasuke and his team with all her strength and could tell from her activated Byakugan she was gradually gaining on them. It wouldn't be much longer before she caught up to him.

Out of nowhere Sasuke appeared in front of her and she would have run into him, but he stopped her forward progress and his arms clutched her shoulders as he swung her around and pinned her up against the trunk of a tree.

Deactivating her Byakugan in shock, Hinata's breath came out in pants as she stared into very hard and very black eyes. Gulping a little, she realized Sasuke was not happy with her and under his rigid grip she felt herself begin to tense as he continued to stare down at her.

Sasuke looked down into her lavender Hyuuga eyes and unexpectedly felt himself begin to soften. Stubbornness and sincerity shone brightly from them and defused his irritation at being followed. Peaceful chakra began to surround him and draw him to her like a man dying from thirst in a desert.

Like cool running water flowing over him, thoughts of his goals to destroy Konoha and hunt down his prey, Danzo, began to float away from him. Part of him wanted to stay with her and just rest. He would slumber forever with her, if the world would just stop and let him.

"Sasuke-kun," Hinata whispered softly in confusion as he continued to stare down at her as though he was battling inner demons. A vulnerable and tired look passed over his eyes as they softened just slightly and his face slowly moved downward in her direction. His lips hovered just above hers and she could feel his breath on her skin, before his hands tightened and the darkness returned.

Winning the battle within himself, hard eyes looked down at her once again. "Hinata, what are you doing here?"

* * *

Just above them, near the top of the tree with his presence hidden from both of them, Itachi sat watching and couldn't stop the cold twinge of jealousy from gripping his heart. He watched his brother as he struggled with his emotions and could tell he was also not indifferent to her.

Just as he had expected and hoped would happen, in the short time Hinata had been around Sasuke, she had gotten through to his brother's hard and angry heart more than a little. Practically from the moment Itachi had saved her, when she had fought with Pein, he knew she had that intangible quality that no one else had that could reach his brother.

If only he hadn't been affected by her as well.

A long sigh escaped him as loneliness and hope intertwined around his heart and he knew he had to keep his distance from her and put her out of his heart for good. He was dead and his brother was alive.

If only his little brother would stop being stubborn and give up his hatred, then there would be a chance for him to have something that very few Uchihas in his clan have ever attained in their lifetimes…happiness.

Itachi watched as his brother backed away from Hinata and felt himself grow weary. He longed to return to his peaceful place and ultimately be restored to his eternal sanctuary with his clan and his parents. Being in this dark and hate-filled world was beginning to take its toll on him.

His eyes lingered on his brother closely and he could tell by what was left of his brother's soul that he just as tired as he was and it began to fill him with hope that he still might be able to reach him. Feeling his resolve once again begin to strengthen, he had to keep trying, because losing his brother to the darkness forever was not an option he was willing to accept, no matter what it cost him.

* * *

Momentarily stunned by all of the emotions she had seen him struggle with and now the abruptness of his question, Hinata could only stare up at him while she pulled her jumbled thoughts together.

Soon the ninja within her made her stand up straighter and reminded her of her duty. Her eyes flashed with determination as she answered him, "I am here to stop you, Sasuke."

His eyes darkened reluctantly and the corner of his mouth turned wryly. "Hn, did my brother send you?"

Hinata shook her head, "No, I came on my own."

"Stay out of it, Hinata," he told her with frustrated eyes. He had shown her kindness by forcing her away earlier and now it had backfired against him. He would not make that same mistake again.

Deadly resolve shone from his eyes as he pinned them on her, "Danzo has to die and not you or my brother or anyone else can stop me from my goal."

Taken aback by the sheer force of his words and the hate in his eyes, she felt her back press deeper against the hard bark of the tree as she watched him release her and turn to leave.

Hinata's courage regrouped and she took a step forward and said urgently, "Sasuke, what about Konoha, do you still plan to destroy it?"

His back was cold and rigid as he turned and lifted his hand towards her. A long strand of lightening surrounded her, immobilizing her to tree trunk. He had promised his brother that no harm would come to her, but if she continued to follow him, it would be on her own head.

"Goodbye, Hinata," he said and gave her one last look before vanishing from her sight. He knew someone from Konoha would catch up to her and find her soon enough.

Just before he reached his restless team-mates, his brother appeared next to him and Sasuke's head jerked forward, and he was filled with anger at his interfering with his plans. He knew Hinata had followed him because of him.

"You're a fool, Sasuke," his brother told him with a sigh as he looked over at his stubborn face.

Shooting his brother an icy glare in response, Sasuke sped up and rejoined his team-mates.

"Shall we continue?" Zetsu asked with raised eyebrows as he looked over at Sasuke.

Dark eyes glanced over in his brother's direction and noted the rigid disapproval written all over his face and posture. "Hai, let's go."

* * *

Kiba and Akamaru reached her first.

"Hinata, are you alright?" her team-mate asked while he diffused the lightening and released her from the trap she was in.

"I'm fine, Kiba," she replied as she rubbed her arms. She found she was not hurt at all and strangely enough the lightening had felt almost exhilarating and warm, like a giant hug.

She stared off in the distance and her heart began to drop, she had failed again. _Itachi, I'm sorry_, she thought silently as she wondered if he was with his brother.

Kiba rounded on her with worried and slightly suspicious eyes, "What happened to you?"

She put her hand on his arm and her eyes were apologetic as she said to him, "I'm sorry, Kiba, I can't tell you."

Kiba looked back at her and did not accept her answer at all, but she was saved from further interrogation when Kakashi and the others caught up to them.

Stopping near her, Kakashi's questioning eyes met hers in a furtive glance.

Hinata gave him a sad look and shook her head.

The silver-haired jonin gave her a reassuring glance telling her she did the best she could, before he took a deep breath and directed his attention toward the others.

"Alright, let's go," he directed them and watched as they began to move out. After summoning his dogs, he began to follow after them towards the conference.

**Author's Note:** A miracle just happened a few days ago…I started to like Naruto again. I am about 100 chapters behind in the manga and I just started watching the anime again. For the longest time I had struggled with this fic because it is tied so closely to the manga that I kind of got jumbled up with my plot and I had no idea what to do about it. Well, I have at least the next two chapters in my head and during that time I will try to get caught up with the anime/manga and take it from there.

Thanks to everyone who contacted me during the last year or so and encouraged me to update this story. This chapter is for all of you. Big hugs!


	17. Chapter 17

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 17**

* * *

**Author's Note: **While I am somewhat mirroring this story to the manga, I decided to change up a lot of the dialogue and some details. It is just too hard to keep it all straight and I will be able to keep the plot tighter and less messy. Thanks for sticking with me…I especially want to thank Umnia for reviewing on every chapter, big hugs and THANK YOU!

* * *

Dark and forbidding like a moonless night sky covering a stone tomb, the dense fog blanketed the area, making visibility almost impossible. However, as they grew closer Sasuke's eyes lit up when the site of the conference area came into view. He could sense the time for Danzo's destruction was drawing near, charging the darkness around him with excitement.

Following Zetsu, Team Taka used the heavy fog as cover and slipped past the enormous stone wall and through the highly secure courtyard and into the pyramid in the center. To most people the top secret fortress would be impregnable, but not for Zetsu. He led them through the confusing labyrinth of tunnels and levels with almost ridiculous ease.

Once inside, they were jumping from balconies to pillars and scaling down the wall undetected, when Zetsu unaccountably slipped away from them.

Karin noticed first and her eyes were filled with suspicion as she searched for the area for him. "Where did that guy go?" She asked the others.

Under the hood of his black and red Akatsuki cloak, Sasuke smirked, he had a feeling Zetsu was going to bale on them at some point. In the back of his mind he had a sinking feeling Itachi was right and Madara was up to something.

Mentally he shrugged, because there was nothing he could do about it at the moment, he would have to deal with it later. Avenging his clan and family were the only things that mattered to him right now.

_Time to die, Danzo,_ he thought while raising his hand in a silent signal and alerting the others to follow him.

* * *

On a snowy hill just out of the range of security at the conference area, Black Zetsu met up with Madara.

"Sasuke and his team are at the conference," he informed his boss. "I should also mention a team from Konoha is heading in this direction."

"I am aware of it. I intercepted them some time ago," Madara responded shortly.

Zetsu gave a sideways glance to assess his leader's mood. After a minute he decided to share the rest of his information and let Madara determine its overall level of importance. "We made an unexpected stop on the way here, when one of the members of the group from Konoha was following us. Sasuke intercepted her before she got too close. From what I can gather she was from the Hyuuga clan."

Madara's eyes were thoughtful as he considered all of the implications of such an action by Sasuke. "Did you hear their conversation?"

His subordinate shook his head, "I was not able to get close enough to them."

"I understand," Madara said, knowing Zetsu would have ruined everything had Sasuke or his team-mates figured out he was spying on them. "You did well to notify me," he told him and wasn't sure if this information was important or not. Filing it away in his brain for possible future use, his devious mind began to switch gears and churn with anticipation, "Is everything ready?"

"Yeah," Zetsu replied.

"Then begin," the ancient Uchiha commanded with a gleam in his lone Sharingan eye. It was time for all of his careful planning and patience to come to fruition.

Now it only remained for Sasuke to do his part_. It won't be long before the darkness engulfs him completely,_ Madara thought with a sinister smile hidden behind his orange mask as he followed Zetsu down the hillside.

* * *

With their chakra carefully suppressed, Team Taka kept themselves hidden on one of the upper balcony areas of the conference. Tension was at an all-time high amongst the team-members causing Suigetsu to fidget nervously with the handle of his sword.

Sasuke immediately sent a quelling look in his direction, making him stop.

After waiting for several more taut moments Sasuke turned to Karin, "Have you been able to locate Danzo yet?"

Feeling useful for practically the first time today, she focused very hard for several minutes, before shaking her head in disappointment. "No, not yet…I haven't been able to locate him."

Materializing beside him, Sasuke recognized Itachi's presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to keep you out of trouble," his brother replied with a telling look around him that said clearly he didn't think he was doing all of that stellar of a job. Considering his brother had just broken into a highly secure international conference and was planning to make himself even more of a wanted criminal.

"Go away," his younger brother said with a dark look. "I don't need your help."

"Um, Sasuke," Karin asked in an extremely hesitant manner after sharing an alarmed look with the other two team-mates. "Y-you don't need our help anymore?"

Irritated, Sasuke turned to her, "What? Don't be an idiot; of course I need your help."

With great patience, like speaking to someone who was disoriented or just a little insane, Jugo asked, "Then who were you speaking to?"

Sasuke released a very annoyed sigh as he gave his ghostly brother a 'look what you started now' kind of glare before turning back to his team-mates, "Never mind, just stay focused on finding Danzo's location."

Next to him, Itachi let out a brief and mocking snort.

"What?" Sasuke snapped.

"Tell me your plan?" his brother asked, "Assuming of course, you have one…"

"Of course I have one…we will find Danzo and I am going to kill him, period."

Itachi raised a skeptical eyebrow, "That's it?"

"What's wrong with it?" Sasuke asked becoming pissed, as if he would actually enter a place like this without some sort of a plan. His brother was treating him like he was some sort of clueless idiot, just like Naruto.

"Well, I can think of a few things wrong with this plan," Suigetsu chimed in nervously as he glanced at the open spot Sasuke kept looking at. "For one thing, there are at least five kage level ninjas, along with dozens of escorts in that meeting. Do you honestly think they are going to just hand over Danzo to you without a fight?"

"Also Sasuke," Jugo said cautiously adding in his two cents, "What about an exit strategy, how do you plan to get us out of here after you kill Danzo?"

"Hmm, your team raises some valid concerns, Sasuke…" Itachi mused with a deliberately provoking look directed at his brother.

"Shut up, all of you," Sasuke said between clenched teeth. "We will deal with those problems as they happen."

His three team-mates looked up at him with shocked looks as the realization hit them times ten, that their normally awesome leader was actually leading them on a suicide mission. Not only that, he seemed to be holding a one-sided conversation with himself.

"We're so doomed," Suigetsu mouthed silently to Jugo, who shot their leader a nervous glance hoping to see something positive in his face. When there was nothing even remotely positive in the way Sasuke looked, he began to stare somberly at the ground.

Itachi watched Sasuke's team-mates absorb the dire situation they were in and noted as usual, the female was in denial and had her arms crossed, refusing to believe Sasuke would do such a rotten thing to them. The other two were wavering, but would follow him blindly with only the slightest amount of encouragement from his brother.

_Poor deluded souls_, he thought while shaking his head. As much as he disliked his brother's foolish team-mates, he didn't want to see them dead. He had to keep trying to penetrate the darkness and reach Sasuke, through any means necessary.

"Deep down your team-mates believe in you," he reminded his brother with just a hint of censure in his tone. "If you abandon them or use them as pawns, you will be worse than…"

"I know, I know," Sasuke admitted in an exasperated voice. "Worse than scum, you sound just like Kakashi."

"Well, he is right," Itachi said before directing a cool and slightly condescending glance at his little brother. "If you want to act in a hot-headed, irrational manner then do…"

"Hot-headed, irrational!" Sasuke exploded in a low and angry voice. "You go too far, brother. I have been planning my vengeance since I found out about the bastard's actions. My actions are always deliberate and rational."

"Brother," his team said in unison with sucked-in voices as they stared at him in shock.

Ignoring them, Sasuke continued to glare at his sibling's ghostly outline with incensed eyes.

"Then prove it to me. No unprovoked attacks or unnecessary deaths," Itachi challenged. "You will remain calm and focused only on Danzo and no one else."

"Fine," Sasuke stated abruptly.

His eyes were now oddly determined and so dialed into his goal, his team-mates stood there in awe before him. The look on his face reminded of them how he used to be, before he learned the truth about his brother.

Chakra senses coming alive, Karin suddenly looked alert, "What's this?"

"What is it, Karin?" Sasuke asked.

"The samurai's movements have suddenly become flurried," she told him as she maintained her concentration. "I think they are looking for us."

"What?" Suigetsu exclaimed.

"But we didn't do anything to be spotted," Jugo observed with a worried look at his team-mates. Turning to Sasuke he said, "I bet it was Zetsu."

Sasuke, shared a look with his brother and as if a light had just come on, he saw a glimmer of brightness could now be seen through the darkness. Madara and Zetsu had betrayed him to the council.

"Sasuke, follow me, I will lead you to Danzo," Itachi told him and began to float towards an exit. In the distance they could hear the scuffling sounds of boots and weapons being pulled out of their hilts, the rest of the team began to follow their team leader.

They would follow him to hell if necessary, even if he was just a tiny bit crazy.

On their way out, Sasuke turned to them with firm urgency, "Here is the exit plan. When we get close to the meeting place, I will show you the way out. I will do this alone and when I am done, I will meet you in the woods, east of the fortress."

When his team demurred, Sasuke stopped them with a hard look, "This is my goal, not yours, you do not need to die for it."

"But Sasuke, we do not want you to go against them all alone," Karin complained while staring at him with dreamy eyes, because he was trying to protect them.

"I will not be alone," Sasuke said as he turned away. "I have my brother with me."

**Author's Note:** I felt I needed to post something quickly to say thanks for all of the reviews, favorites and almost 5,000 hits on this story in the last 2 weeks. Big hugs to all of you, I would thank all of you personally, but I am going to post this and then go to bed. I will try my best to post another chapter soon, please read and review, thanks!


	18. Chapter 18

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 18**

* * *

**Author's Note: **I started writing this a while ago in honor of the sheer awesomeness of manga chapter 590. Itachi Uchiha, is an amazing shinobi (even in zombie form) and the best brother ever!

Only partially visible to Sasuke's sharingan in a ghostly haze, Itachi led them through the eerie maze of darkened corridors, balconies, trapdoors until lastly they were all assembled in a humongous room in the center, supported by pillars. Team Taka had just hidden behind one of them when Itachi signaled his brother to stop.

"Wait here, I will be right back," the ghost directed him before he passed straight through a solid rock wall.

As Sasuke watched his older brother transcend physical barriers to a place where no human could, it occurred to him that even in death, Itachi could do things that he could not. It was as if nothing had really changed, because in some ways for most of his life he was always just out of his reach, be it as a ninja or brother. Alive or dead, Itachi continued to remain as elusive as a phantom in his eyes.

"Sasuke, I can sense Danzo's chakra now," Karin told him suddenly with an edge of excitement in her voice.

"Where is he?" Sasuke asked while swiveling his head sharply in her direction.

Karin wore a puzzled frown as she pointed off in the distance behind them. "He is about 300 meters away, near the main entrance."

Sasuke's lips tightened at the knowledge his brother had been leading them in the wrong direction. Scanning the area around him, he saw light from the sky up ahead, proof that Itachi had not been taking him to Danzo, but had been leading them outside of the fortress.

"So much for trusting you, Nii-san," he sighed in disappointment and glanced at this sensory team-mate. "Take me to him, Karin."

* * *

Out in front of the formation with Kiba and Akamaru next to her and Naruto and Sakura following behind them and Kakashi taking up the rear, it only took the two recon ninjas a few seconds to locate Sasuke's team.

They were presently trudging through a series of underground tunnels in hot pursuit. They had been forced to sneak in after they were denied entrance by the sentries guarding the high level conference.

The group had been on the verge of admitting defeat and waiting outside when Kakashi made a surprising announcement that they were going to "crash the party."

"I don't trust Danzo," Kakashi told them as a way of explaining his actions and that was all the explanation the zealous group of ninjas from Konoha needed. Besides it was for Sasuke, and Naruto and Sakura would do anything to keep him out of trouble. Everyone else was there for their own reasons.

Hinata was there to fulfill a promise and help protect Sasuke. In turn, Kiba and Akamaru were there to watch over Hinata and make sure she didn't get hurt.

Suddenly, Hinata's mouth gaped open as her Byakugan revealed a huge amount of chakra and guards had surrounded Sasuke and his team-mates.

"What the hell," Kiba exclaimed out loud when he noticed it just a few moments later. Akamaru started barking and giving Kiba worried looks.

"Sasuke is in trouble," Hinata said while pointing out in the distance in front of her. And immediately a stampede of two (Naruto and Sakura) practically ran her down to head in the direction she had alluded to. As they passed by the front of the formation they grabbed Kiba and began to drag him along with them. Akamaru ran after them and started barking furiously.

"Come along Kiba, we need you to help us find Sasuke," Sakura said with a slightly maniacal look in her eyes as she held on tightly to his arm.

Naruto glanced back and saw Hinata and Kakashi were behind them, "Come on, what are you guys waiting for, Sasuke needs us?"

The Jonin breathed out a long-suffering sigh before he started heading out after them in a leisurely manner. "Don't act so rash, Naruto and Sakura," he cautioned them and knew they weren't listening to a word he said, because they didn't even bother to slow down to wait for him.

With her Byakugan still activated Hinata went to follow after them, but halted her forward progress when she saw a movement out of the corner of her vision just behind her. Focusing her attention more closely on the spot, her heart skipped a beat when she realized it was Itachi.

Without another thought, she immediately began running towards him, but as she got closer an anxious frown began to sketch her brow. Itachi's form kept fading in and out and from what she could tell as she got closer to him he didn't even seem to notice her.

That fact was very alarming to her, because he wasn't someone who would let his guard down, not ever, especially not in a place like this. In a matter of seconds she was right next to him and he still did not acknowledge her presence. She spoke his name and tried to touch him but her hand went through the faded outline of his shoulder.

"Itachi!" She said in a low, intense voice as worry began to grip her heart. She waited a few seconds and there was nothing and what was worse was his presence was beginning to become muted and she was starting to have trouble seeing him.

"No! Itachi don't leave me!"

* * *

After scanning the area and seeing the team from Konoha barging through the tunnels in their search for his brother, he chose not to stop and chat with them instead he chose to return to Sasuke and his team. As they had the potential to get into much greater trouble.

He immediately thought of his brother and was surprised to see that he hadn't moved an inch. Usually that was all it took, a thought and then he would be at his destination.

_That's odd_, he thought before trying again to reach his brother. Nothing happened, he was still there.

Suddenly, there was no time to think about the problem any longer because a strange chakra began tugging mightily on his spirit, trying to capture it and pull it into the darkness. Assessing the feeling and the chakra behind it, it only took him a second to recognize this was not death calling him back, but a chakra from a very familiar and defeated source.

Itachi began to fight back with everything he had as the jutsu was pulling on him and sucking the energy out of him. This went on for several minutes and he could gradually feel his carefully conserved stores of energy were being depleted at an alarming rate. Soon, he would have nothing left to anchor his spirit to the human world.

His eyes grew desperate as he looked around for something living to tie himself to, anything human-sized or bigger would work, but there was nothing living around him except for rats.

This went on for a few more minutes as he continued to fight against the jutsu that had coiled itself like a snake around his remaining hold on this world. He was about to lose hope when he saw Hinata was standing next to him. He had no idea how long she had been there, but he didn't waste time as he reached out to her and began to draw energy from her bright presence.

Gradually, some of his strength began to come back to him, enough at least for him to talk to her. "Hinata," he said finally, causing the kunoichi's heart almost to stop in relief.

"Itachi! I was so worried about you? What is wrong and how come you couldn't hear me?" She asked in a flurry of anxious questions. Her eyes were huge in her pale face.

Still very weak, Itachi debated internally whether he needed her help or not. Asking people for help wasn't something he was ever very good at, not when he was alive or now that he was dead. "I'm fine," he stated firmly while scanning the area, soon he could sense others were coming near their vicinity. "It's not safe here; let's go find your team-mates."

"Um…al-right," she agreed slowly as she stared at him and was still wearing a frown. Itachi hovered at her side while she ran for several meters before she looked over at him and saw not only was he was not fine, he was beginning to fade in and out of sight.

"Itachi!" She yelled and tried to reach out with her hand, but it just went through him.

Struggling against a renewed attack on him from the jutsu, he knew he had no choice but to ask for her help. "Hinata," he gasped out. "I need to anchor my spirit to yours." Until he could find his brother and ask for lightning, it was the only thing he could do to survive.

Not sure what he meant by that, but she didn't care as she nodded desperately. "Okay, what do you need me to do?"

"Nothing," he said as he searched inside of her for her soul. "Just hold still, you might feel a chill for a few seconds." His brow furrowed in concentration as he delved deeper into the spirit realm and as soon as he located her soul he reached out and clung to it tightly.

Hinata felt a chill that went through her causing a shiver to run down her spine. Her eyes looked around for her friend, but saw he was nowhere to be found. It wasn't long before it dawned on her where he was, as she felt a tingling coolness flow through her body – he was inside of her. A heavy blush started with her face before it began to spread down her whole body. Part of her hoped he was not able to read her mind and feelings while he was inside of her.

"Hinata," she heard his voice say through her mouth, which caused her to squeak out loud. "Find Sasuke, he will be able to help me."

Without another second to lose she activated her Byakugan and took off after Itachi's brother.

* * *

Sasuke's steps were quiet, yet they echoed with confrontation as he appeared in front of the group of samurai. His arrogant eyes swept over the guards in all of their armor, with their energy swords blazing and immediately dismissed them as inferiors.

Scanning around him, his eyes did a quick search for his brother and when he couldn't locate him, a small worried frown began to spread over his face.

_Where the hell are you, Itachi?_

Taking advantage of his inattention the samurai warriors had moved in closer to him and were poised to go on the offensive.

Quickly assessing their stealthy proximity to him, a dark smirk formed over his face as Sasuke was about to unleash some serious pain on them involving a lethal combination of lightning and genjutsu. He was just about to start forming hand signals when he remembered his promise to his brother to not kill anyone. His lips tightened into a thin irritated line.

"Fine, I will do this your way, brother," Sasuke said through gritted teeth to his absent sibling.

Lifting his eyes slowly to the senior leader of the samurai he met his cold metallic glance. "I am very irritated right now, if you attack – I will show no mercy," Sasuke bluffed and part of him wished it were true, but a promise was a promise even if his brother wasn't around to see it.

Following orders to the letter of the law along with a healthy dislike for all ninjas, the leader replied, "I would say the same to you." Crossing his swords over one another like a giant X he channeled his chakra and released several deadly crescents of energy toward the rogue shinobi in front of him.

A slight snort escaped Sasuke as he barely moved a muscle other than to activate his Sharingan and then draw his sword which absorbed the energy attack as if it was his own lightning.

The samurai looked around in shock and awe that he had rendered their powerful attack useless to the point that there was not even a scratch on him.

Sasuke looked almost bored as his eyes passed over the group dismissively. He didn't want to even have to talk them again, but because of his promise he warned them one more time. "Let me through or you will all die."

Suigetsu appeared in a puddle of water in front of him. "I'll take care of these guys Sasuke," he said with a feral grin as he began to turn solid again. His hands were a blur of rapidly forming hand signs. "It's time for these metal-heads to go for a little swim, hee-hee."

Sasuke shrugged which his team-mate interpreted as consent and watched as the water began to swirl around the samurai in waves and their energy swords began to fizzle out pathetically one by one. Panic began to ensue among the warriors, because water was the one substance that could nullify their attacks completely and render them powerless.

Jugo jumped down from the balcony and landed in the water with a giant wave that splashed over them, further humiliating the vanquished samurai warriors. "Karin has located Danzo, go with her. We will finish up here," he said to Sasuke as he went over and stood next to Suigetsu.

"What the hell do you mean _we_? I have things well under control here," his team-mate from the Hidden Mist balked and then smirked and as he watched a couple of the samurai warriors try in a comical fashion to wade in their wet armor and end up tipping over in the water like drunken toy soldiers.

Suigetsu began to laugh. "As you can see, _I_ came up with the perfect solution to problem," he bragged, congratulating himself because no one else was.

"Sasuke," Karin yelled urgently while jumping off of the balcony. "Come on! A huge amount of chakra is heading our way."

Beginning to feel the massive pressure too, Sasuke turned to his other team-mates. "Get out of here now, while you still can. Karin and I will meet up with you later. You know the way out." His duty toward his team-mates done, Sasuke began to follow Karin towards (that bastard) Danzo's chakra.

"But I want to stay and fight," Suigetsu pouted. "I know I can take him."

With an exasperated sigh, Jugo came up behind his foolish team-mate and clamped his hand over his mouth and began to drag him towards one of the tunnels. "Are you that eager to die?"

"Fine," he snapped and jerked his arms away and started to walk on his own. A few moments later he heard an enormous crash come through the ceiling and then a splash and felt some of the scariest, most powerful chakra he had ever come across. And even though he would never admit it, he was kind of glad his team-mate had pulled him away.

"I think I could have taken him," he grumbled and kicked a small rock and watched it ricochet off of a tunnel wall.

Jugo smiled. _You're welcome, Suigetsu._

* * *

Led by her Byakugan, Hinata caught up to Sasuke a few corridors away from where the conference was being held. Trying not to yell too loudly, she raised her voice only a little and hoped it was enough to attract his attention. "Sasuke!"

Karin heard her first and her fuchsia hair swung around her angrily like electric daggers as she glared back over her shoulder at her rival. "What the hell does she want? Can't she see we are a little busy here?" She complained under her breath.

Sasuke stopped when he heard the sound of footprints behind him and soon he sensed not only Hinata's chakra, but also…

Itachi!

Spinning around he took a few steps toward the Hyuuga and it took him less than a second to figure out something serious was going on. His eyes scanned over her nervously and saw that except for being a little disheveled and she was wearing a smudge of dirt on her pale cheek, she appeared to be fine. A feeling of dread began to grip his chest…

"Itachi needs your help," Hinata told him urgently and she was so worried a tear slipped down her face. She quickly dashed it away with the back of her hand.

Sasuke eyes scanned around for his brother, "Where is he?"

"Here I am," his weak voice said with Hinata's mouth.

Sasuke and Karin's eyes both opened wide in shock as they gaped at her.

Fighting back the absurd urge to blush, Hinata suppressed it because she could feel Itachi's presence growing weaker inside of her. "Hurry Sasuke, he doesn't have much time. Something is draining away his energy, so he may not be able to stay with us much longer."

Fear and loneliness struck Sasuke like a kunai knife to his gut. He had just gotten his brother back, annoying and over-protective though he was, and he wasn't ready to give him up again. "What do you need me to do?" He asked; his voice was strangled with anxiety and worry.

"Lightning," Itachi gasped in a whisper of a voice as his spirit lost its hold on Hinata's soul and fell out onto the ground. At this point, the effort to not be sucked into the dark abyss by the jutsu was taking all of his strength and he had nothing left to keep him tied to this world.

Sasuke watched in horror as his older brother began to fade slowly away, to the point where he was barely visible to him even with his Sharingan activated. Without another thought and not caring that he was giving away his location, Sasuke began to blanket his brother with massive amounts of chakra infused lightning. "Stay with me Itachi, I am not ready to let you go yet."

Biting her lip and praying, Hinata watched Sasuke continue to pour lightning over his brother, making it stronger and hotter, to the point it was charring the floor to cinders underneath them.

"Well, I am not ready to leave yet," his brother replied n a cool voice several moments later as he stood up and once again became fully visible.

Hinata closed her eyes in sweet relief and felt a huge grin spread over her face as she looked at his beloved face. Just the mere thought of losing him forever made her world feel like it was dropping out on her. She valued his friendship too much. Her eyes met his and her heart nearly stopped at the raw look he gave her and for a few minutes they simply stared at one another.

There was a lifetime of pain and regret in his eyes when he finally turned away from her and he was angry at himself for allowing her to see as much as she did. As he kept reminding himself, nothing good would come out of her knowing how he really felt about her.

In fact, he wouldn't put it past her doing something incredibly reckless if she ever did find out the real depth of his feelings for her. He shook his head sadly and placed his attention fully on his little brother. Because in the end - some secrets were just not meant to be shared.

"It looks like you found a way to get what you wanted after all," Sasuke remarked a little gruffly with tight lips as they began heading down the tunnels to find their way out of there.

Itachi frowned and stared back at his brother, "How so?"

"You were never leading me to Danzo in the first place. Admit it? You were leading us out of the fortress all along," Sasuke said while his eyes dared his brother to refute him.

Itachi shrugged and didn't even bother to lie. "You're right; I was taking you to the road outside of the conference where you would have been able to ambush him, without having to fight the entire Gokage and all of their entourage."

Sasuke's eyes were resolute and cold. "I have already crossed the line where I am a wanted criminal and nothing can change that. My plans to kill Danzo and purge the ninja world of corruption has not changed."

"Aww, how touching," Madera remarked with false sincerity as he came upon the scene in front of him, interrupting them. "The bonds of brotherhood, I remember them well," he said darkly with a hint of wistfulness in his voice as his dead little brother's face momentarily flashed in front of him.

Shivering inside because of the sinister quality of his voice and the feel of his malevolent chakra, Hinata unconsciously moved closer to Sasuke. A soothing and comforting warmth began to infuse her when his hand slightly touched hers. A quick glance out of the side of her eye saw he was warning her to remain silent and to be prepared for anything. In a small effort to shield her he placed one foot protectively in front of hers.

Madera's sharp eye took note of everyone present as it drifted slowly over each of their faces until it settled squarely on Itachi and his lip twisted under his mask. He began to clap his hands in mock applause. "It appears I have underestimated you, once again, Itachi."

"What do you want, Madara?" Itachi asked in a flat voice, while his eyes never left his masked face.

"Oh nothing much," he responded easily until his eyes shifted over to Sasuke and stopped. Gauging the younger ninja's chakra carefully he could tell it was becoming lighter than it used to be and not so full of darkness and hate.

It pissed him off his little pawn had gotten sidetracked so easily. He was supposed to help start this war; instead he ended up helping his brother.

His eyes narrowed as they shifted back toward the former Akatsuki member and halted once again. Madara knew Itachi was truly a genius and knew his brother well, but even geniuses have weaknesses and he knew all too well what was currently going on with the ghost. A menacing smile touched his lips under his mask.

"You boys enjoy your time together, what's left of it anyway. As for me…I have a war to start," Madara proclaimed while a twisted wormhole from his eye appeared, spiraling deviously until he disappeared. In the last seconds before the hole revolutions grew smaller he sucked in Sasuke and Karin with him.

Itachi and Hinata felt a sense of dread as they watched the hole vanish completely. Whatever plans Madara had for Sasuke, they couldn't be good…

* * *

**Author's Note: ** I am so sorry for not posting any chapters for this story the last few months. As some of you know, I moved to another state over the summer and it took a while to get settled in. Anyway, I am back to writing and feel pretty motivated to get some serious work done on this story. First off, I kept the timeline pretty much the same as the manga in this chapter, but I did away with the whole nauseating storyline with Sakura plotting to kill Sasuke and all that nonsense. I also took out the part where Sasuke goes ballistic and starts killing samurai and fighting everyone in his path (Raikage, Gaara, etc). I never liked that part; it was too upsetting to watch in the anime so I decided to change directions. Coming up next…Sasuke vs Danzo.

Please leave me feedback and let me know if you are still reading this story or have just found it on . Thanks!


	19. Chapter 19

**Itachi's Ghost**

**Chapter 19**

* * *

"Do you think…Sasuke is going to be…alright," Hinata asked almost in a whisper so the others from Konoha wouldn't know she was talking to a ghost.

"I am leaving right now to go find him," his brother said before lifting implacable eyes to her. "Hinata, you must go with Kakashi and the others back to Konoha."

A small sigh escaped her as she knew deep down he was right, now that Madara was watching Sasuke's every movement, it was no longer safe for her to be around him.

"Alright," she conceded somewhat reluctantly, but her eyes were dark with concern as she looked at the place where he hovered with his arms crossed firmly in front of him. "…But, what about you? What if…you stop being a ghost…and become dead again?"

Itachi's impassive face softened a fraction when he heard her voice crack and knew this separation was going to be hard for her. But it was inevitable – not only because she was becoming too attached to him, but also because he knew he was on borrowed time.

Like a snake coiling to strike he could feel something was watching him, just waiting until the right moment when his guard was down. The fix of a massive infusion of chakra and electricity he had used to anchor him to this world was only temporary.

"Sasuke will be with me if I need someone to give me chakra," he reminded her calmly, deliberately leaving out the other part. He didn't trust that illogically kind heart of hers not to do something reckless to try to help him.

It was with some relief when he saw Kakashi had finished his meeting with the Gokage and was headed in their direction.

"The rest of the villages refuse to deal any more with Danzo in his role as acting Hokage," Kakashi shared in a low voice as the others gathered around him. "Because of his duplicity today, they no longer trust him."

"Yeah well, as soon as that jerk made Sasuke a missing nin, that was when I stopped trusting the old man, he is a real asshole," Naruto commented loudly.

"Keep your voice down, Idiot," Sakura whispered harshly while clotting him on the back of his head with her open hand. Her eyes grew hard as steel as she added. "But in this instance I would have to say you're are right, the guy IS A JERK for going after Sasuke like that."

Kakashi shook his head and rested it in his hand in frustration. It seemed whenever anything related to Sasuke was mentioned it was getting harder and harder to keep Sakura and Naruto from freaking out. Deep down though, he never thought to rebuke them, he knew what it was like to lose a team-mate, the pain of it wasn't something a person just gets over, it stays with you long after they are gone.

"I am going to Sasuke," Hinata heard Itachi say in her ear as her eyes immediately darted to where he had been before and she saw he had vanished.

She nodded with a frown and her thoughts immediately went back to Sasuke and hoped he was alright. She could tell that his brother was unusually worried about him. Her eyes drifted upward bringing her focus back on the group around her and when her eyes landed on her team-mate, she saw he was watching her with avid curiosity lurking in his eyes.

Hinata quickly looked away and hoped he wouldn't ask her any questions.

Kiba was going to ask her about the odd conversations she kept having with herself when a familiar scent reached his nose. He looked over at Akamaru to confirm it and soon received a swift bark in response.

His long-over-due conversation with Hinata would have to wait until another time. "Kakashi-sensei," he said quickly, and immediately after he saw he had everyone's attention he stated, "I know where Sasuke is, he is with Danzo."

For a moment the whole group tensed up before Sakura and Naruto shared a grimly anxious look and without speaking they picked up their gear and looked to Kiba to show them the way. No words were necessary, they all knew what it meant for Sasuke to be near Danzo.

Blood was about to be shed, there wasn't a minute to be spared. Within seconds they were lined up with Kiba and Hinata in the lead of the formation.

Kakashi's mouth straightened into a determined line beneath his mask as he followed behind Sakura and Naruto. His heart felt heavy as he thought about his former genin, and he wondered for about the hundredth time if he could have done something different back then when they were all together.

After several moments he finally shook his head as though clearing it of painful memories, knowing such ruminations were pointless, Sasuke had never gotten over losing his family and he refused to accept them as a partial replacement. Still, he couldn't help but wish things had turned out differently because in his mind, Sasuke would always be a member of Team Seven.

* * *

Itachi arrived at the bridge and saw Sasuke and Danzo were facing each other and appeared to be talking and watching them from above and sitting on a ledge was Madara.

His ghostly eyes narrowed in suspicion at the sight of his former Akatsuki leader watching over his brother. Knowing Madara very rarely observed fights personally, he almost always sent Zetsu to record it for him secretly.

Cloaking himself with invisibility, Itachi hovered near him hoping to glean some information. He knew it was a gamble because Madara has been able to sense his presence before, but he felt he had to try. Any information he might learn, no matter how small, might give him a better understanding of Madara's future plans for his brother.

Below them, Sasuke just used Susano'o to crush Danzo after questioning him about Itachi's mission to kill the clan under the elder's orders.

Itachi watched how his brother wielded his former jutsu as more than just a defense, but also as a weapon of deadly force. He couldn't help but be proud of his brother's skill, yet a frown formed on his face knowing the heavy toll in chakra his brother had just expended needlessly.

Not only that, he couldn't hear what was being said below, but he could tell his brother was furious about something. Susano'o was glowing with malice and darkness in ways that he had never seen before.

A new Danzo appeared and Itachi's eyes opened wide when he heard Madara acknowledge his presence.

"First Susano'o and now Amaterasu, your brother is going too far, just to test Danzo. Sadly, he does not have your level of chakra control, Itachi-kun," Madara commented without even looking in his direction.

Understanding he was given an indirect invitation to join his former leader, Itachi joined him on the ledge. "Sasuke is allowing his emotions, rather than his intellect to guide him," his brother responded impassively.

Madara seemed pleased by the idea and his amusement showed in his voice, "Yes, I believe you are right."

Down below them Karin yelled, "Sasuke! Behind you!" and he just narrowly missed being blown to bits by the elder's Wind Style Vacuum Bullets jutsu. He was bleeding from the shoulder and Itachi raised an elegant eyebrow when he saw his brother summon a giant falcon and begin to fly around while riding on its back.

"Hmm, when did he get that?" Madara mused out loud.

Itachi paid him no heed, but silently applauded his brother for at least having the presence of mind to keep some of his abilities secret from Madara. He knew from experience that wasn't an easy thing to do.

As the fight continued, Itachi grew increasingly worried that Sasuke would not have the strength or chakra reserves to continue to fight Danzo's forbidden Izanagi jutsu. After all, the crafty man had over ten Sharingan to use, while Sasuke only had one life, even with Susano'o to protect him.

"Sasuke is allowing Danzo to goad him," Madara commented, no longer amused by what he was seeing. The hand his chin was resting on turned into a tight fist. "He is too reckless."

Itachi couldn't help but agree, but he wasn't about to show Madara just how concerned he was. Although, he knew his brother would ultimately find a way to win this fight, he just knew it was going to inflict a heavy toll on his brother's psyche and set him on a path of revenge that would probably be irrevocable.

Beside him, Itachi started to notice the more his brother's chakra began to grow darker and malevolent, the more Madara's demeanor began to grow darkly pleased. He raised his eyes and felt all his hopes of saving his brother diminish even more.

Then a miracle occurred and the team from Konoha, along with Hinata, showed up and surrounded Danzo on the bridge. Itachi moved in closer so he could hear what was being said below.

Kakashi eyed the elder and Root Leader with disgust at the sight of ten closed Sharingan on the old man's arm. "Your time as Hokage is now at an end Danzo," Kakashi pronounced coolly, deliberately treating him without the respect an elder deserves. "I am taking you back to Konoha to be tried for crimes against the village you have sworn to protect."

"Like hell you are," Sasuke snapped furiously, "he is mine. If anyone is going to execute this piece of shit, scumbag, it is going to be me."

Beginning to feel like he was being backed into a wall, Danzo tried to stonewall and deflect like the corrupt and shady politician he was. "I don't take orders from YOU, I will step down when I receive orders from the proper authority, the Daimyo."

"Hmm, I am sure those all of those Sharingan embedded in your arm, just showed up there by themselves, or did you receive a little help from…Oro…"

"Shut your mouth Kakashi," Danzo ordered with eyes that had narrowed into angry slits. How dare that upstart son of a traitor undermine all that he had accomplished with the blood and sacrifices of so many.

"Oh, I am just getting started, Danzo…either come back with me peaceably or I…" Kakashi left off with a casual shrug that implied heavily that he would start talking.

"Well, I'll say something," Sakura interrupted, her green eyes flashed with anger toward the old man in front of her. "Sai didn't tell me, but I figured out you had sent him to assassinate Sasuke long before he was listed as a rogue shinobi."

"You bastard!" Naruto yelled raising his fist to punch the old geezer in the face. He would have tried, but his sensei stopped him by stepping in front of him.

"Patience Naruto, he will get what is coming to him soon," Kakashi said to him quietly in a soothing voice.

Danzo saw all of these eyes pinning him down on him making him feel like a cornered animal, in one direction there was Madara, who was obviously after Shisui's eye and in another there was the group from Konoha who was out to expose him.

"Don't forget about me, old man," Sasuke's voice said ominously in his ear from behind him. Strands of lightning began encircling around Danzo's body, tightening and digging into his flesh, burning his skin. Pulling the strand tighter for the kill, Sasuke was surprised when a log poofed in front of him.

_Damn it, where is he?_

Kiba found him first and his harshly sucked in breath was a chilling sound when Sasuke looked up and saw Danzo was up on top of a ledge and he had a razor sharp kunai resting against Hinata's throat.

"Hinata," Kiba choked out. "Take me, you bastard. Let her go!"

"No," Danzo said in a contemptuously calm voice that belied his true fears, especially when a quick glance showed Madara had stood up and was looking in his direction. Kakashi and the Nine Tails container were also advancing slowly toward him.

He tightened his blade against her throat and took a step back so they were flush against a wall. "You have brought me nothing but trouble Hyuuga. It is only fitting that you die with me."

Hinata wasn't afraid to die, yet she knew if she went now she would feel regret. In front of her was Sasuke, her unfinished mission. She didn't want to leave him.

Her gaze met his and hope began to flare in her heart at what she saw in them. She saw conflict as if he was fighting a war inside of himself. His usually self-assured, hard visage that he stared down the world was noticeably absent for once.

She gave him a brave, yet tremulous smile, _don't worry about me, do what you have to do,_ her eyes clearly told him.

"I-I am not afraid to die," Hinata stated out loud so everyone could hear her.

Unable to remove his eyes from her pale face, Sasuke felt hopelessly numb as he heard her brave words, for inside the dark and twisted vortex of hate he felt for the old man in front of him, there was a light shining through it.

That light, he admitted to himself only now when it was too late, was Hinata.

"Sasuke, you promised me you would protect her," Itachi reminded him as he suddenly appeared beside him.

"It's too late for that," he gritted out and was surprised at just how badly the words hurt to say as the reality of revenge was getting more painful by the minute.

"It is for me," his brother said with a touch of sadness in his voice, that Sasuke couldn't quite understand, "…but not for you."

The mystery of his brother's words was solved when he saw who Itachi was looking at.

_Hinata._

Then suddenly, as though sludging through thick mud in slow motion, everyone began to move at once, he could hear Naruto screaming his name. Danzo began making hand signs and muttering something under his breath.

Sasuke watched as Itachi rushed to Hinata and said something to her, in the next moment as though the old man had planned it, Danzo released her and she swiveled around and pushed so much chakra into his Sharingan that it exploded under her fingers.

A small smile appeared on Danzo's face as he started to collapse and the seal on his chest began to spray out into a massive sphere of black death.

Recognizing danger that ball represented, Kakashi ordered his team to fall back and they all scrambled to safety.

Karin also managed to scuttle out of the way at the far end of the bridge, taking shelter under a large support beam.

Angered at losing his prize possession, Shisui's eye, Madara passed through the Hyuuga before sinking through the bottom of the bridge. An ugly smirk touched his lips as he watched Sasuke's desperate rush toward Danzo to try to save the foolish girl.

_You are too late, Sasuke._

Then in a burst of black, surrounded by flashes of purple and white, Danzo's Reverse Tetragram Sealing jutsu exploded.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Forgive any obvious errors please, I just couldn't wait any longer to post this chapter and I am anxious to get chapter 20 done. I sincerely apologize for taking so long to update this story. I have had to deal with a lot of personal problems lately and it was just too difficult for me to focus on a story, especially one aligned as closely to the manga/anime as this one is. As always, I would love to hear from all of you, especially long time readers. *Hugs*

**Additional Note:** I have to say that when I was reading the manga and watching the anime, I really disliked how kindly Kishimoto treated Danzo's character. After I saw all of those Sharingan embedded into his arm and Shisui's eye transplanted into his eye socket it made me realize what a monster the character truly was. It also made me suspect that more could have been done to prevent the Uchiha massacre. Anyway, I think his actions were criminal and the Third Hokage was probably a little blinded by his friendship with the man to his true character, just like he had been in his relationship with his student, Orochimaru. Anyway, thanks for letting me rant, please feel free to let me know if you agree or not:)


End file.
